ICTHM Proceedings · Dr Cleopatra Veloutsou, University of Glasgow, U.K. ... Municipal Cultural and...

4TH International Conference on Tourism & Hospitality Management, Athens, Greece, 19-21 June 2014

June 19th to the 21st of 2014

Athens, Greece

Published by:

13 Gr. Kydonion, 11144 Athens, Greece Tel: + 30 210 3806877 Fax: + 30 211 7407688 URL: www.dratte.gr Εmail: [email protected], [email protected]

Proceedings editor: Laloumis Dimitris ISSN : 1791 – 8685 Head of the Organizing Committee

Laloumis Athanasios MA

Organizing Committee

Gegaj Albina Mavroidi Evagelia Paraskevopoulou Vasiliki Vorrisi Dionysia Teliatnikova Olga Skiadas Manolis Tsouska Hristina Mitsopoulos Dimitris

Activities for the Development of Tourism and Tourism Education

Tourism Research Institute


Conference Chairman

Nicholas C. Zaferatos, Ph.D., AICP Urban Planning and Sustainable Development Department of Environmental Studies | Huxley College of the Environment Western Washington University

Scientific Committee

Dr Buhalis Dimitrios, Bournemouth University, U.K. Dr Alexandru Nedelea Stefan cel Mare, University Suceava, Romania. Dr Boskou George, Ass. Professor, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece Dr Cleopatra Veloutsou, University of Glasgow, U.K. Dr Frangos Christos, Technological Education Institute of Athens, Greece. Dr Karagiannis Stefanos, University of Central Greece, Greece. Dr Karameris Athanasios, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Dr Kasimati Valia, Department of Economics, University of Bath, U.K. Dr Kefalaki Margarita, Instructor Open University, Greece. Dr Kulshreshtha Sandeep, Indian Institute of Tourism & Travel Management, India. Dr Ladias Christos, University of Central Greece Dr Laloumis Dimitrios , Technological Education Institute of Athens, Greece. Dr Lytras Pericles, Technological Education Institute of Athens, Greece. Dr Meriade Laurent, Lut Aurillac Crcgm University of Auvergne-CUFR Champollion ALBI, France Dr Papageorgiou Konstantinos, Agricultural University Of Athens, Greece. Dr Papageorgiou Konstantinos, Agricultural University Of Athens, Greece. Dr Papanikos Gregory, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. Dr Poulis Konstantinos, University of Essex, U.K. Dr Schnell Axel, University of Applied Sciences of Dusseldorf, Germany. Dr Soulis Sotiris, Technological Education Institute of Athens, Greece. Dr Stergiou Dimitrios, Technological Education Institute of Patras, Greece Dr Stergioulas Apostolos, University of the Peloponnese, Greece. Dr Varvaresos Stelios, Technological Education Institute of Athens, Greece. Dr Venetsanopoulou Maria, Panteion University Athens, Greece Dr Vlisidis Andreas, Technological Education Institute of Crete, Greece. Dr Yannopoulos Peter, Goodman School of Business, Brock University, Canada. Dr Mainetti Νicolas, LIut Aurillac Crcgm University of Auvergne, France.

CONTENTS

9

The Strategic Hospitality Scorecard: Developing an

Innovative Framework for the Hospitality Industry

RONNY BAIERL

CAROLIN STEINHAUSER

20

Xenia Hotels in Greece: Rejection or Re‐use? A Holistic

Approach

ZOE GEORGIADOU

DIONISIA FRANGOU

DIMITRIS MARNELOS

45 Development of Hotel Cooperations: An Empirical and

Theoretical Analysis Within the German Market

STEINHAUSER CAROLIN

47 The Internet Impacts’ on the Travel Habits of the

Hungarian Tourists

JUDIT GROTTE PHD.

61

Give me the Lowest Price!

An Empirical Analysis of Special Offers in the German

Hotel Market

RONNY BAIERL

72

The Impact of Digital Crisis Communication Messages

at Greece’s Touristic Reputation

MARGARITA KEFALAKI

DIMITRIS LALOUMIS


82 Micro‐credit Program and Women Entrepreneurship

of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh

DR. MD. SHAH ALAM

97

Architectural Design as an Effective Aspect for the

Improvement of the Tourist Product

DIONISSIA FRANGOU

DR. ZOE GEORGIADOU

DIMITRIS MARNELLOS

Visiting Mexican Wineries: Can Education lead to

Appreciation?

MELISSA ST. JAMES

THOMAS NORMAN

112

The Impact of Tourism on Crime in Cyprus

MARKIANOS KOKKINOS

ANDREAS KAPARDIS

120

Inbound Tourguides’Perceptions about the

Requirements of Tourism Students of English

Language Competence for the Internships in Thailand

SUPALUX SRI‐SUMANG

EUCHET SUYANUNE

133

Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in the Hotel

Industry

MARIA KRAMBIA‐KAPARDIS

CHRISTINA NEOPHYTIDOU

145

Recommunication Process of Approach of the

Municipal Cultural and Public Benefit Enterprise of

Karditsa‐Greece (DI.K.Ε.Κ.) with the Cultural Common

LABROS SDROLIAS

SPYRIDON BINIORIS

GEORGIOS ASPRIDIS

NIKOLAOS KAKKOS

157

The Study of Applicable Patterns of Salakphet Local

Market Management for Tourism in Trat Province,

Thailand

JITTASAK PUTJORN

THITIMA VECHAPONG, PH.D.

SUPPARAT SANGCHATKAEW

TIPSUDA PUTJORN

SABAITIP MONGKOLNIMITR


MORAKOT BOONSIRICHAI

171

Seasonality issues in established tourism

destinations: Expanding tourism season in Sithonia

Peninsula, Central Macedonia, Greece

FOTIOS KILIPIRIS

ATHANASIOS DERMETZOPOULOS

178

Territory as Basis for Touristic Planning: Paths for

Regional Development (Poster)

SARAH MARRONI MINASI

VIRGINIA ELISABETA ETGES

193


The Role of DMO for Sustainable Development of a

Tourist Destination‐ Bulgaria Case Study

KRASIMIR ALEKSANDROV

208

Tourism Clusters as a Potentially Effective Tool for

Local Development and Sustainability

SGOURO MELISIDOU

ATHENA PAPAGEORGIOU

DIMITRIOS PAPAYIANNIS

STELIOS VARVARESSOS

218

Local Gastronomy and Tourist Behavior: Research on

Domestic Tourism in Greece

EFSTATHIOS VELISSARIOU

EFTHALIA VASILAKI

231

Decoding & Cracking the Anomaly of Tourism

Information: The Contribution of the Tourism

Solutions Generator to Destination Countries

DR GERSHON PAZ‐TAL

248

Factors Affecting to Revisit of Thais’ Tourists with

Logistic Regression: A Case Study of Hua‐Hin in

Prachuap Khirikhan Province, Thailand

PARNCHIT WATTANASARUCH

271

Agritourism Marketing Strategy and Typology

Investigation

DR. P. DIONYSOPOULOU

DR. V. KATSONI

A. ARGYROPOULOU

282

The Evaluation of Quality of the Cultural Product

Supplied of the Municipal Cultural and Public Benefit

Enterprise of Karditsa‐Greece (DI.K.E.K.): A Systemic

Approach and Research

NIKOLAOS KAKKOS

GEORGIOS ASPRIDIS

LABROS SDROLIAS

DIMITRIOS BELIAS

294

Consumer Behaviour in Tourism: A Content Analysis

Of Relationship Between Involvement and Emotions

VASCO SANTOS

PAULO RAMOS

NUNO ALMEIDA

305


The Strategic Hospitality Scorecard: Developing

an Innovative Framework for the Hospitality

Industry

RONNY BAIERL

Professor of Business Administration with Emphasis on Tourism at Campus

Dresden, SRH Hochschule Berlin – The International Management University,GERMANY

CAROLIN STEINHAUSER

Professor of Hospitality Management at Campus Dresden,SRH Hochschule Berlin – The International Management University, Germany

ABSTRACT

Typically, a product offered by hotels is multi-dimensional. Furthermore, the value chain of hotels characteristically involves several stakeholders from and beyond the tourism industry. The object of this conceptual research project is about transferring the well-known and widely acknowledged management concept of the balanced scorecard by Kaplan and Norton to the hospitality industry. As a result, our Strategic Hospitality Scorecard comes into existence. The key characteristic of this new framework is the presentation of a mix of financial and non-financial metrics – each compared to a specific target value usually known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – within a single concise report. The introductive part of this study is divided according to four thematic areas that compose the basis for our Strategic Hospitality Scorecard: First, the important guest dimension represents the output perspective in the original work. Second, an internal hotel perspective focuses on the input perspective by Kaplan and Norton. Third, a financial view on a corporation's return represents the financial perspective typically involved in controlling activities. Fourth and finally, an innovation-oriented perspective focuses on future processes and includes emerging business models in that specific industry. Like in the fundamental work by Kaplan and Norton, these four perspectives go along with a consequent competence-oriented hotel strategy representing a corporation's vision and overarching strategy. In a second step, each of these perspectives will be investigated from four different stakeholders: hotel managers, tourism partners like consultants, crucial guests, and academic experts in the field. As a main result, our innovative framework of the Strategic Hospitality Scorecard covers a double 360˚ view – one in a thematic dimension, one from different stakeholders' perspectives. This framework builds the structural basis for our new book on international hotel management offering a hands-on approach for practitioners on their way from makers to winners, which will be published soon.

Keywords: Strategic Hospitality Scorecard, Balanced Scorecard, Strategy, 360° View


1. INTRODUCTION

Typically, a product offered by hotels is multi-dimensional. Furthermore, the value chain of hotels characteristically involves several stakeholders from and beyond the tourism industry. The specific challenge in the hospitality field is about creating memorable, holistic, and consumer oriented experiences (Brunner-Sperding, 2008). On delivering these new experiences, it must be kept in mind that guests will consume a set of individual goods and services that add up to the composite outcome of a visit. The overall judgement of the tourist is influenced by different interrelated products and several service providers in and outside the hotel. Therefore, the cooperation of these key stakeholders is essential. Moreover, the interfaces between them have to be organized and coordinated (Bieger & Beritelli, 2013). In practice, it looks somewhat different in the majority of destinations. The hotel product is often provided by a number of heterogeneous service providers who are made up of fiercely competitive and independent SMEs (Gnoth, 2004). Teamwork within and between the different tourism suppliers that should complement one another and use their common knowledge to enforce their core competencies, very rarely occurs. The object of this conceptual research project is about transferring the well-known and widely acknowledged management concept of the balanced scorecard by Kaplan and Norton (1996) to the hospitality industry. As a result, our Strategic Hospitality Scorecard comes into existence.

2. THE BALANCED SCORECARD AS CORE CONCEPT

From its early use, the balanced scorecard has evolved from a simple performance measurement framework to a full strategic planning and management approach. One of its core goals is about improving internal and external communications and monitoring a corporation's performance in the light of its strategic goals. This strategic concept was developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton as a performance measurement framework. However, the concept initially combined strategic non-financial procedures with traditional financial figures. As such, managers and executives were enabled to realize a more balanced interpretation of organizational performance (Kaplan & Norton, 1996).

The balanced scorecard transforms a corporation's strategic plan from an attractive but passive document into the marching orders on a daily basis. Therefore, it makes sense to use this concept in order to identify improvements and management actions for the hospitality industry. The concept provides feedback for both internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results. When fully implemented, the balanced scorecard transforms strategic planning from an academic exercise into the internal body (Kaplan & Norton, 2000).

As illustrated in Figure 1, we adapt the established four perspectives of the balanced scorecard to hospitality matters. First, the important guest dimension represents the output perspective in the original work and deals with the important aspects of guest reviews. Second, an internal hotel perspective focuses on the input perspective by Kaplan and Norton. Third, a financial view on a corporation's earnings represents the financial perspective typically involved in controlling activities. Fourth and finally, an innovation-oriented perspective focuses on future

processes and includes emerging business models in that specific industry. Like in the fundamental work by Kaplan and Norton, these four perspectives go along with a consequent competence-oriented hotel strategy representing a corporation's vision and overarching strategy (Kaplan & Norton, 2000).

In a second step, each of these perspectives will be investigated from four different stakeholders: hotel managers, tourism partners like Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) or consultants, crucial guests and academic experts in the field. As a main result, our framework of the Strategic Hospitality Scorecard covers a double 360˚ view – one in a thematic dimension, one from different stakeholders' perspectives.

Finance

Guests

Process

Innovation

Creating guest reviews

Professional portal management

Correlation between reviews

and bookings

User generated content

Lack of skilled employees and consequences

New business models & new commissions

Changing of guest wishes

Meta portals: distribution and

pricing

Innovation management in

hospitality

Recruiting 2.0 or 3.0?

Realisation of guest wishes

Study instead of on the job

training?

Increasing direct bookings

Cost vs. revenue and sales

management

True cost drivers in

hospitality

Revenue management

and cost saving

Online Reputation

Business Models

Employees

BSC Dimension

Manager Perspective

Partner Perspective

Guest Perspective

Academic Perspective

SHSDimension

Strategy – Competence Orientation

Second 360 view

Costs

First 360 view

Figure 1: Concept of the Strategic Hospitality Scorecard

3. THE STRATEGIC HOSPITALITY SCORECARD

3.1 The Financial Perspective on Costs

Based on a corporation's strategy and vision, the financial perspective plays a very prominent role. In fact, before Kaplan and Norton's fundamental work, management tools as utilized in the understanding of controlling and business development mainly focused on that dimension. Although the basic idea behind


their balanced scorecard is about broadening a manager's horizon to non-financial goals, a strong orientation on financials was and is still a fundamental part of a manager's toolbox. As such, our Strategic Hospitality Scorecard employs the dimension on financial goals from that important perspective.

From an aggregated point of view, a corporation's earnings depend on just two dimensions: Its revenues and its costs. Due to the still increasing role of costs in the hospitality industry, we decided to focus on that dimension. From a manager's perspective, commission fees paid to OTAs play a dominant role for hotels. As these fees tentatively rise in practice and new business models come into existence (please confer the respective paragraph), alternatives for hotels are an important and underresearched area. In a similar vein, professional consulting agencies may provide fruitful avenues for finding new revenue channels without ignoring corresponding costs. As such, a strong cost orientation seems promising for yield managers (an introduction to yield management and price optimization can be found at Phillips, 2005 in general or at Mauri, 2007 and 2013 for the hotel industry). In addition, hotel managers during the last decade typically identified cost drivers in other areas. Rising cost pressure in housekeeping and purchase are just a few observable results in practice. However, consequences of cost cuttings in these areas and their (financial) results are still underresearched. Therefore, a comprehensive scorecard needs to involve the question on real cost drivers from a guest's perspective to identify the right areas for potential cost cuttings.

As already mentioned in the beginning, revenues are the reversed sides of the same coin. Following the logic of the recently introduced Business Model Canvas (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010), costs result from the interplay of key partners, key activities and key resources. Contrary, revenues result from several customer segments and the corresponding communication channels and relationships. At its core, the Business Model Canvas focuses on a corporation's value proposition that can be interpreted as corporate strategy. Therefore, revenue management should always accomplish cost management from an academic point of view.

3.2 The Guest Perspective in Terms of Online Reputation

From a short-term oriented perspective, running a hotel by a strong focus on financial measures may increase profits. However, such a procedure completely ignores the long run. It is not uncommon to hear from hotel managers that they increase revenues and room occupancy rates for the respective year by omitting the holistic, long-term perspective. However, customer satisfaction and loyalty are very important for the sustainable success of a hotel (Meffert, Burmann & Kirchgeorg 2008). During the last years customer satisfaction surveys have gone online, which means a shift from traditional opinion influencing matters (e.g. newspapers, magazines, advertising) to online review channels. Personal recommendations and reviews have the highest influence on the booking decision (Dickinger, 2008). Guests orient themselves on the average values to make their purchasing decisions. In an investigation on behalf of the German association for Internet journeys VIR more than a thousand Internet users were asked how much they are influenced by reviews when selecting a hotel. 96% admitted to be very or

somewhat influenced while only 4% are not influenced. One third of all users change their booking decision after visiting social media pages, such as hotel review portals (VIR, 2011). One of the main tasks of hotels is collecting and communicating reviews to their guests via different touch points (Amersdorffer & Bauhuber & Oellrich, 2010). A hotel’s website plays a major role. Almost all of the interviewed people have visited the hotel’s website prior to booking a hotel. Only 2% use social networks like Facebook for their research activities (Teufel, 2010). A hotel website should show actual guest reviews, if possible from the biggest and well-known booking and review portals. Software service tools such as Toocan, TrustYou or RevuePro are capable to aggregate this data automatically. If guests read about other customers' experiences they create an own opinion and price feeling. The OTA (Online Travel Agency) portal Expedia observed a 9% increase in the average daily rate following an increase of one point in the evaluation scale. A PhoCusWright study shows that guests of OTAs who visit the hotel sites are twice as likely to actually book. The same effect of doubling the conversation rate can be noted in hotels with ratings of over 3.0 at Expedia (scale 1-5) (Fritsch & Sigmund, 2013). From a hotel’s perspective, it is essential to answer to guest reviews on the booking portals in time. It is recommendable to add comments from the hotel's perspective with a positive tone – in both positive and negatives reviews. In addition to an active communication strategy, the ability to be found in search engines supports such a strategy. There will be a contribution from managers’ perspective how to generate more reviews because of a direct relation between bookings and the number of reviews (Gunkel 2013). Moreover, the most famous review portal in Germany named holidaycheck provides a comprehensive insight into guests' expectations. Finally, our book covers an academic perspective dealing with user generated content.

3.3 The Innovation Perspective through Business Models

Looking back on hospitality development during the last years, fundamental changes became necessary throughout the industry. Hotels were forced to transform, reengineer or rejuvenate themselves through the development, production and marketing of new tourism experiences or through the reconfiguration of tourism product bundles. Therefore, product development has become more and more important, especially in the face of increasing worldwide competition (Bieger 2013; Laesser 2002). Although the relevance and necessity of new products has been recognized, innovation management in the service sector in general and in the hotel industry in particular has received less scientific and practical attention (Kelly & Storey, 2000). In fact, the tourism industry has not been a very innovative sector in the past (Pérez, Borrás et al., 2003). However, changing conditions primarily driven by new technologies (e.g. e-tourism) and still increasing competition are more and more challenging the whole industry. While traditional business models focus on a large vertical span of activities, new models are distinguished by large horizontal business portfolios with a smaller vertical range typical of manufacturing (Bieger & Rüegge-Stürm 2002). As a meaningful example, business models in the online distribution sector are changing dramatically at the moment. Traditional online business models are based on fixed fees according to


received revenues with commissions between 15% and 30% of booking value (the so called cost per order or cost per acquisition models, see Figure 1). With the cost per order business model the hotel has no risk, provides the OTA with prices and availabilities and guests book and pay directly via the booking portal (e.g. HRS). Until arrival guests are in contact with the OTA and not with the hotel.

Figure 2: Structure of a Cost per Order Business Model

Today, there are even newer “pay-per-click models”, which are more

challenging and with a higher risk on the hotel’s side. Pay per click suppliers are independent from booking revenues since these companies receive money for each click even if there is no realized booking. Hotels have to collaborate with Google licensed interface providers and have to define a cost per click (CPC) budget. In the case of Google Hotelfinder these providers send prices, availabilities and the disposition for a commission of between 0.2% and 3% to Google. Commission is then based on an auction model like Google Adwords – a variable fee depending on the demand. Google lists in maximum 4 booking possibilities – 3 OTAs and the own hotel booking website. Via the hotel’s booking process, guests reserve directly and pay at the hotel. The commission is based on the auction conditions and the potential booking value. Figure 2 explains the connections and relations between hotel, service provider, Google and guests in more detail.

Figure 2: Structure of a cost per click business model

These new business models are already established in a similar approach at trivago, holidayceck, tripadvisor and weg.de (Kastner, 2013). Deciding whether to follow this new business models, two main questions are gaining in importance: How high can be a hotel auction with the CPC and what conversion (clicks or bookings) must a hotel receive in order to pay acceptable, saying comparable commission fees similar to pay per order models? The subsequent example investigates these two questions and illustrates that the green marked commission fees achieve profitability. The orange area is still acceptable and the red columns are out of range and much too expansive.

Table 1: Cost calculation for CPC and CPO business modells As a result, the auctioned commission should not exceed 0.6% and the

necessary conversion should be at least 4%. Under these conditions a pay per click model can be efficient. In order to know these numbers a continuous tracking and intensive communication between hotel and service provider is mandatory. Without a detailed analysis, cost per click business models can be expensive and may result in poor realized bookings.

3.4 The Internal Process Orientation in Means of Employees

Finally, internal processes are of fundamental importance for each and every corporation. Talking to general managers of hotels independently of the hotel's size, they typically agree that employees play a very important role in hospitality. In fact, this finding corresponds with the nature of a hotel product. Although the experience perceived by guests is influenced by tangible assets such as the interior, intangible assets such as human capital are predominant. As the employment market in Germany is characterized by an increasing lack of qualified employees – especially in the service sector – this issue should be implemented here. In fact, from both a manager's and a partner's perspective a hotel should already have started their recruiting strategy to encounter this development. From a guest's perspective, results of unsatisfied expectations are still observable (e.g.


in online review portals). In other words, identifying, recruiting and keeping qualified employees represent one of the most pestering challenges for hotels.

Additionally, the international market for hotel employees faces another development. Based on the ongoing increasing market share for chain hotels, these large corporations focus on well educated employees. While an apprenticeship was sufficient for an international career in the past, an increasing number of large chain hotels demand additional certificates. Correspondingly, study programmes in international hotel management or in tourism with focus on hospitality on several levels – from bachelor degrees to master programs to (executive) MBAs – occur in the German education market. Therefore, each hotel manager should be aware of this development that is covered by the academic perspective in our framework.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper presents a fist overview of a newly introduced framework for hotel managers and tourism researchers: the Strategic Hospitality Scorecard. Based on the fundamental work of Kaplan and Norton, we implement the basic idea of their balanced scorecard to the specific environmental conditions of the hospitality industry. As such, the paper and its corresponding framework helps categorizing the traditional dimensions financials, customers, innovation and internal processes that are surrounding a corporation's strategy and vision from a hotel's perspective. Therefore, the resulting dimensions of cost management, online reputation, business models and employees represent four selected important areas for practitioners and scholars in that field. Enlightening these four dimensions from a manager's, a partner's, a guest's and an academic perspective, a holistic framework – the so called double 360° view – comes into existence. Figure 3 summarizes the basic idea of that new approach in a comprehensive way.

Strategyand Vision

Costs

Online Reputation

Business Models

Employees

Manager

PartnerGuest

Academic

Figure 3: The Strategic Hospitality Scorecard in its Double 360° view

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Xenia Hotels in Greece: Rejection or Re‐use? A

Holistic Approach

ZOE GEORGIADOU

Department of Interior Architecture, Decorative Arts and Design, Technological Educational Institution of Athens

DIONISIA FRANGOU


DIMITRIS MARNELOS



ABSTRACT

In early 50’s The Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) made a severe nation- wide attempt to develop tourism in Greece, connecting it with economy and qualitative tourism. For a period of about two decades it developed the hotel buildings’s substructure, a project known as the “Xenia project”. During this period Greek architects, devoted to modernism, such as Ch. Sfaellos, A. Konstantinidis, Ph. Vokos, C. Kitsikis, C. Stamatis, D. Zivas, I. Triantafyllidis, C. Bougatsos, G. Nikoletopoulos, K. Dialisma, K. Krantonellis, and also D. Pikionis, designed and supervised, as Technical Bureau’s employees, 53 hotel compounds, spread throughout Greek regions of the mainland and the islands, with archaeological, topological or other touristic interest. This project’s policy was meant “to offer tourist accommodation in high class hotels, and also to show to private investors the aspired level of the new hotel facilities, that should be constructed in order to develop tourism as the new profitable, financial field in which the state aimed for”. Today the Xenia hotels are internationally recognized as part of our modern cultural heritage based on the simplicity, the definition of the form and the truth in materials use, besides the integration of the buildings in the natural environment, components which reveal them as a unique venture. Today most lie abandoned, time-destroyed, void and unoccupied. Some of them are still in use, having undergone dramatic interventions, which have altered their aesthetic meaning, while extensions and adjuncts that have come about due to entrepreneurs’ occupancy have changed their earliest architectural inspiration. This paper aims to reveal that despite the efforts to retain the Xenia hotels, these procedures remain incomplete. They rightly focus on architectural shells, morphological and functional standardization, proper utilization of the Greek environmental conditions, and the use of authentic local materials. However the cultural evaluation of these settlements can only be completed by their holistic design, which also comprises their interior spaces, lightening and furniture design, all these detailed aspects that form an organic entirety and are not included in these efforts. This paper suggests that this organic entity has to be treated as an unsegregated whole.

Key Words: Xenia hotels, modern cultural heritage, holistic design, architectural approach, interior design, furniture design, retaining.

INTRODUCTION The Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) in the early 50’s, within the national effort towards an economical reconstruction of the country after World War II and the Greek civil war, made a severe nation- wide attempt to develop tourism in Greece. The field of tourism was already a priority for the Greek economy since

1914, under different forms of state supervision and control1. The GNTO Council, which consisted of 10 members that specialized in tourism, exerted the tourism policies of the organization planned and executed within the development of Xenia Hotels project, connecting it with economy and qualitative tourism2. On a national level this project defines the most important attempt for mass production of public buildings, under state supervision and funding. The technical bureau of the organization, staffed by trusted architects, undertook the responsibility to organize and support the Xenia project by developing, for a period of about two decades, the hotel building substructures in different “hoteling” types. The main goal for this project was the “creation of standards in hotel resorts”, built in Greek regions with exceptional natural beauty and tourist interest, with insufficient or non-existent infrastructures. This project’s policy was meant “to offer tourist accommodation in high class hotels, and also to show to private investors the aspired level of the new hotel facilities, that should be constructed in order to develop tourism as the new profitable, financial field in which the state aimed for”. During this period, starting from 1950 to 1957, Ch. Sfaellos as head of the Organization’s Technical Bureau and then A. Konstantinidis from 1957 to 1967, with a team of young Greek architects, most of them devoted to modernism3, such as I. Triantafyllidis, Ph. Vokos, C. Bougatsos, C. Kitsikis, C. Stamatis, D. Zivas, G. Nikoletopoulos, K. Dialisma, K. Krantonellis, and also D. Pikionis, designed and supervised, as Technical Bureau’s employees, 53 hotel compounds, motels and tourist pavilions4, spread throughout Greek regions of the mainland and the islands, with archaeological, topological or other touristic interest.

11914 (Tourism Bureau), 1929 (Greek National Tourism Organization in a primary form), 1936 (Sub- Ministry of Press and Tourism), 1941 (Directory of Spa- Towns and tourism), 1945 (General Secreteriat of Tourism), 1950- today (Greek National Tourism Organization), 2004 as part of the Ministry for Tourism Development, and from 2010, as part of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 2 As M. Moussa mentions “In a country ruined by wars, Architects and engineers had the mission to rebuild it, during the Era of reconstruction. Many constructions had to be made: housing for internal migrants, public facilities (hospitals, schools etc), private commercial buildings (shops, tourism accommodations etc), industry and infrastructures (roads, ports etc). Having a poor budget the Greek State had to hierarchize its expenses. ..Housing, leaving out a few exceptions, was left to private investors, …the infrastructures and public buildings were obviously a State affair, industry and commercial activities were private investment affairs,…. Private investors hesitated to invest on tourist accommodation, because the depreciation period of capital assets was too long (over 20 years). Consequently, the State had to take more radical actions. It was then that GNTO started the Xenia project; the one and only attend of the Greek state to create accommodation infrastructure for the development of tourism”. M. Moussa, (2012), “Xenia Project 1950-1967. Reapproaching the role of Post- War Modern Architecture in Greece”, Proceedings, 1rst International Conference on Architecture and Urban Design, 19-21 April 2012, Epoca University, p.4. 3 Modern Architecture was established in Greece during the post-war period, adapted mainly in public buildings, sometimes within reconstruction programmes for schools, hospitals or social houses, with the participation of many architects who had studied abroad. 4 The total number of the buildings produced within the Xenia project, was about 70 (GNTO archives)


The Xenia project was completed in 1974 and officially terminated in 1983. However since 1970, coming to a climax in 1980, many of these model hotel resorts started to decline, were abandoned, left void and unoccupied (Xenia of Andros island, Florina, Nafplio, etc). Some were demolished with irregular procedures (Xenia of Chania, Heraklion, Joannina), others were leased under unfavorable terms, without defining regulations for preservation, expansion and architectural interventions (Xenia of Poros island, Mykonos island, Mesologgi, Drama, Nafplio, etc), others had their use changed (Xenia of Delphi, Olympia, Volos, Rethymno, Igoumenitsa) and the rest were transferred to the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF)5 properties, and were divested for reducing the public debt burden – Xenia of Paliouri Chalkidiki and Skiathos island have already been assigned since 2013. The decline of the Xenia Hotels has come due to the turn to mass tourism, bad management, uncontrollable and unregulated construction of new hotel compounds during the period of the military dictatorship. The fact that Xenia Hotels are recognized as “building constructions that further the development of architecture in Greece” according to the theorist P. Michelis (1962), that consist of “the most important production of public buildings in Post-War Greece, achieving through the integration of the settlements in the peculiar and primeval Hellenic landscape, the establishment of a contemporary, pure, and sincere architectural expression, that interpreted the origins of modernism, through a deep comprehension of the local cultural references”6, and that they are characterized as “cultural heritage of the Greek and European Architecture of the 20th Century”7, didn’t stop the disregard and the destruction of many of them, in an environment where tourism policies don’t express anymore stable architectural objectives and vision.

architectural characteristics of the xenia substructures Up to the 1950’s major hotel compounds were very few, and situated in chosen, well known touristic sites. GNTO’s Management Council, in which two important and internationally recognized architects were members, A. Orlandos and P. Sakellarios, decided within the frame of its new tourism policies, to assign the invention of new architectural standards for tourist accommodation to a selected team of architects. The Xenia project, except for large hotel resorts included many complementary programmes for tourist pavilions, stations, motels, regeneration of Spa-towns and also for optional destinations- sites of natural beauty, with touristic interest in the mainland and the islands, in areas that hadn’t yet developed their touristic

5 The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund’s was founded in 2011, with the mission to materialize a wide program for maximizing the proceeds of the Hellenic Republic from the development and sale of assets, in order to reduce the public debt burden. 6 From a letter by the Association of Greek Architects (30517/11-6-2003) to the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, and the Ministry of Culture and Sports, for retaining the buildings of the Xenia project as cultural heritage. 7 Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts (2008)

substructures. The aim for building qualitative hotel compounds in these areas was to attract high class international tourists. The Organization’s orientation towards the creation of architectural standards becomes clear both from the two eminent architects mentioned above8, as well as from the creative team of young architects staffing the Technical Bureau who were well educated, most of them devoted to modernism, and who worked under the supervision of the inspired and experienced Ch. Sfaellos and A. Konstantinidis, heads of the bureau. The architectural options became one of the most serious practices for the tourism policies of the organization. The architectural standards, which were developed through their work, were based on a solid theoretical knowledge, expressed in A. Konstantinidis writings that can be summarized as follows: a. The importance of the location and land chosen covers many of the design aspects – from the buildings’s scale, the microclimate components of the region – orientation, sun penetration, rainfalls, wind fields and natural cooling - the local materials, to the capacity of the building substructures to support the developmental potential of tourism, as well as the local life and existing culture. b. The sizes and standardization of the buildings as a whole, concerning their functional organization, their morphological and constructive rationality, always taking in to consideration the local conditions, as well as individual parts of them, for example the rooms. c. The holistic design, where the configuration of the surroundings, the building shells and the interior spaces, in all their details, structure a common unit, share the same minimal aesthetics and complete each other. Based on the above, the Xenia hotels that were built, despite their different characteristics and the uniqueness of each one of them, shared common design fields in their chosen locations with exceptional natural beauty thus recognized as landmarks, and also in the way they are embedded either into the natural or the urban environment. Their harmonic integration in the ground’s curves with low heights (1, 2 or rarely 3 floors), reveals in most of the settlements the adaptation to the human scale. The utilization of natural local materials combined with modern ones (basically concrete without any plaster, and metals)9, as well as the study of the local

8 “Most of the councilors were lawyers, a few members of the Council were engineers, and there were always an important architect of the time such as: Anastasios Orlandos, an international renowned Academic, and Periklis Sakellarios, who studied in Austria and Bauhaus too. Despite their conflicts, the members always respected each other. The Council often took decisions on architectural issues” Moussa M., (2012), ibid, p. 3. 9 Because “all the natural materials get old beautifully, as time passes. On the contrary the artificial materials (all these that are produced by the industry) don’t grow old but become dirty, especially when they are left in open air. So they become ugly as opposed to an old stone, or a piece of wood which are abraded by the sun and the rain and the wind that become beautiful and warm” Konstantinidis A (1992), “The Architecture of Architecture- Diary Notes”, Athens: Agra ed., p. 229.


traditional architecture, and the discussion about volumes and analogies, complete this integrative procedure. Figures 1, 2, 3 : Xenia of Nafplio, Xenia of Mesologgi, Xenia of Samos, source Benaki Museum Photographic Archives The microclimate conditions define important design decisions, concerning the evaluation of the orientation (south or east for most of the openings, north for cooling) for maximum benefit of solar penetration, wind cooling, etc., as well as the connection between the surrounding and the built environment, through transitive enclosed open spaces, which connect the inner and the outer space. As mentioned by A. Konstantinidis (17.19.1969): “Let me see the way you build and I will tell you who you are. Not something entirely finished. Not something closed and unreachable. A place where inner and outer space compose an organic entity. The interior space comes out to the open space. The outer space penetrates the interior space. And they become one. All of us participate in the same procedure. What is for the first is also for the other- a construction with mental content. For a common quota, for a widespread balance”. And (15.4.1985): “So in the houses I have built….even in all the Xenia, I have put in the right positions, one, or two or even more enclosed open spaces, which made every building pleasantly “dwellable”. Because these semi-enclosed spaces, these spaces that are in between, between the inner and the outer space, give the opportunity to every human being to stand better on his “dimensions”, to live in accordance with nature, opening a dialogic conversation, which will offer them so many pleasures and beauties…” The functional configuration is standardized with the use of a wings’s system, especially for the bedrooms, with a clear flow of movement in the internal spaces, as well as in the surrounding area- closer and further. The functional grid, which arises out of a simple architectural structure of typical parts, is identified with the constructive grid, which is made of concrete without any plaster10. The public spaces are separated from the private rooms, often with the use of transitive enclosed open spaces, as mentioned above. The standardization is focused on the basic repetitive module, which is the room, from its construction to the furniture and lightening used, aiming at money saving. The projects have detailed designs, and

10 Konstantinidis A, (1981), “Projects + buildings, A. Konstantinidis”, Athens: Agra Editions and A. Konstantinidis, p. 218.

nothing is unintended- the balconies, the windows external louvers, the corridors, the cane sun screens11. “And here I am, where I have been looking for ways to have standardization for the construction, and also for the functional configuration, thus each architectural work not to be a unintended incident, but to be a work of thought, something that aims for being complete and perfect”.12 These general characteristics are what built the vision of Xenia project, which led to the major production of public buildings, during the post war period. Nevertheless, this architectural treasure, which is internationally recognized as part of our modern cultural heritage, based on the simplicity, the definition of the form and the truth in materials use, and on the integration of the buildings in the natural environment, components which reveal them as a unique venture13, lies abandoned, time-destroyed, void and unoccupied. Some of these settlements are still in use, having undergone dramatic interventions which altered their aesthetic meaning, while extensions and adjuncts that have come about due to entrepreneurs’ occupancy have changed their earliest architectural inspiration. This paper aims to reveal that despite the efforts to retain the Xenia hotels, these procedures remain incomplete. They rightly focus on architectural shells, morphological and functional standardization, proper utilization of the Greek environmental conditions, and the use of authentic local materials. However the cultural evaluation of these settlements can only be completed by their holistic design, which also comprises their interior spaces, lightening and furniture design, all these detailed aspects that form an organic entirety and are not included in these efforts. This paper suggests that this organic entity has to be treated as an unsegregated whole.

3. the holistic design and the interior space of xenia hotels. The significance of the organic entirety was a widely accepted design concept, at least until the establishment of specialized areas in this procedure. This aspect prevailed in the work by many Greek architects during the post-war period, including A. Konstantinidis, D. Pikionis, K. Krantonellis and others. D. Pikionis in his work Xenia of Delphi, which was designed with his colleague A. Papageorgiou, as well as A. Konstantinidis in Xenia of Andros, Poros and Mykonos, were not only involved in the architectural construction but were actively involved in the detailed design of the furniture pieces, the style of the interior spaces and the color combinations used. “The smallest detail and the general, total shape and size, should come out of the same spirit, in the same sensation, through the same vein, for a minimal perfection. The walls, the ceilings, the casings (doors, windows, dormer windows), the fireplaces, the closets, with them the entire furniture, should have common

11 Ibid, p. 208-227 12 Konstantinidis A, (1992), “The Architecture of Architecture- Diary Notes”, Athens: Agra ed., p. 229, (20-9-1990). 13 From the letter by the Association of Greek Architects (30517/11-6-2003), see footnote 6.


characteristics. Like in nature, the trees, the bushes, the flowers compose a world with the same essential core. And as everything, they taste the same and talk the same language. Thus all the constructive elements coexist, so that if one of them is missing, the other one is lost”.14 The basic principles established in the general synthesis concern minimal forms, authentic local materials, colors and textures, as well as standardization, and are also the basic aspects in the interior space design of the hotel resorts. From the photographic, archival material and the Greek movies of the 60s-70s which were shot in several Xenia hotels15 we can notice this perception of “decoration”, not as a covering or incoherent concept, but as an integral element of the architectural synthesis in accordance with the principles of the modern movement16. The standardization of the equipment is achieved within modernity, through functionality, the combination of traditional and modern materials (usually wood and metals) and the aesthetics of industrial standards which prevail, either these are common works (for example furniture in the lines of Scandinavian design), or well recognized pieces (such as Barcelona by L. Mies Van der Rohe 1929, LC2, 3 The grand comfort armchairs by Le Corbusier, 1929, etc). This aesthetic inspired A. Konstantinidis to design a series of standardized pieces of furniture for the bedrooms, armchairs for the public spaces and lamps for his Xenia hotels17. And this is not a separate design attitude as it is incorporated by other architects too, such as I. Triantafyllidis (1961)18, who in the presentation of his work for Xenia of Nafplio referred to the furniture he had designed, the textiles, the lamps and the art works, which he had assigned to contemporary artists of those years.

14 Konstantinidis A, (1992), ibid, p. 333,20-9-1990. 15 “Young and old in action” 1962, by O. Liaskos, includes shootings in Xenia of Poros, “Right- minded madman”, 1968 by K. Karagiannis, has shootings in Xenia of Lagonisi, etc, as Xenia hotels became famous places for socialization and recreation. 16 Something that opened to international discussions, as early 1910, by a. Loos, Le Corbusier, P.Jeanneret, W. Gropius, etc, within an effort of disconnecting architecture from decoration- as a filler, and connect it with industrial production’s principles to a new aesthetic perception, with standardization as the main characteristic. A. Vrychea, (2003), “Habitation and houses, investigating the boundaries of architecture”, Athens: Ellinika Grammata ed., p. 317-349. 17 Konstantinidis A, (1981), ibid, p. 228-233. 18 http://issuu.com/sxoliastis/docs/xenia?e=0

Figures 4, 5: Xenia of Mesologgi: lobby, Xenia of Samos island: lobby, source Benaki Museum, Photographic Archives Generally the forms of the furniture pieces are geometrical, and wood is combined with leather and textiles, which reveal their color and geometrical forms. The special constructions, which are intended for public spaces, are completely integrated in them (bars, reception desks, shelves, closets, etc). Decorative motives on the furniture generally don’t exist, and in the few cases where we notice them, their presence is so small, that it supports simplicity. Metal and wood details are used for the staircases, balconies, rails, dividing walls, etc.

Figures 6,7: Xenia of Kos island: bar, Xenia of Chios island: Restaurant, source Benaki Museum Photographic Archives The colors have a visual weight, fulfilling the buildings’ form, assuring the continuance of the inner and outer spaces, suiting optically the geometry of shape. Yellow ochre, terra- cotta red, black, plaster white, sky-blue and indigo blue, these are the ancient Greek colors, which are called by A. Konstantinidis “grounds” or


“Polygnotia colors”19 and are combined with the natural color of materials such as wood and stone. “Color in Architecture is not a decorative coating. Color in architecture works with the constructive structure and is a valuable factor for making each built space an irreplaceable container of life. Because architecture is also made by color”20. Thus, the fabrics used on furniture pieces have the color grade of the primary colors, usually in one color, and rarely in geometrical patterns with contrasts. The curtains were also designed using the same principles; there were usually two – an airy fabric, combined with a darker one. In rare cases, mostly in the rooms, wall papers are used, where besides geometrical patterns, a variety of other motives can be seen. Lightening is a specific area of the interior architecture in Xenia hotels. The recess lightening is designed, integrated into the construction and structure of each place. In this way the specific architectural elements (colors, textures, recesses, etc) are emphasized. In the interior space the lamps used, especially in the bedrooms, are adapted to the design perspectives, usually placed on the walls, or standardized by the architect21. Wherever they are the lamps, usually made by a variety of materials, are simply formed and used to reveal the design’s aesthetics.

4. case studies. The Xenia of Poros lies on a small peninsula called Neorio, facing the city of Poros and its hill, in an area surrounded by pine trees that end into the sea. It is a work by A. Konstantinidis built at 1964. The buildings have a south-east orientation, with capacity of 80 beds, and are developed in four wings of bedrooms, which are connected through the public spaces and the reception hall. The natural ground curves lead to high gradation and integrate a building height from two to four levels. In the functional and morphological structure of the compound, with the use of grid, the enclosed and covered open spaces follow the built enclosed spaces. Thus two external balconies are created: one internal stone-built and a roof, covered occasionally with cane sun screens with a full view to the sea, are placed. This resort was the first to be assigned to the first private investor in 1981, and was renamed Poros Hotel. Today is under new management and is called Poros Image Hotel.

19 A. Konstantinidis’ ideas for architecture are focused on color-use with references for Knossos in Crete, Afaia in Aegina, anonymous folk architecture, and also the ancient painter Polygnotos, who is referred by Pausanias and Plinius. He used only four colors and their hues. This characterization doesn’t include indigo blue which came later to Greece, through India. A. Konstandinidis, (1975), “Elements for self-cognition for a true Architecture”, Athens: Ford Institution, p. 314-315. 20 A. Konstantinidis, (1992), ibid, 10-6-1988, p. 333. 21 A. Konstantinidis, (1981), ibid, p. 233.

Figure 8: Xenia of Poros, source Konstantinidis (1992), ibid Figure 9: Poros Image Hotel, source hotel’s site Most of the alterations of the buildings took place in an unknown time, probably during the first investor’s period, while some of them were made during the recent refurbishing in 2000. A new bedrooms’s wing was added on the ground floor. The organic unity of the interior and exterior spaces was ruined since the minimal natural materials used, which were optically connected to the architectural shell and the surroundings, were replaced by others without the same aesthetic quality. The refurbishment took away the total identity of minimal and clear morphology, as well as the truth of the constructive and decorative materials, that is to say the main design perspectives. The previous colors based on a warm gray color scale, in different tones, combined with olive green hues and contrasting with small amounts of minium-red at the iron railings, added to the environmental integration. In the present situation the colors are based on a cool gray color scale, with cyan and blue green shades, lighter on the walls and darker on the window louvers, the iron railings and cover structures, combined with pink salmon hues, which are also used in the interiors. The interior space doesn’t remind A. Konstantinidis’ creation, and all the floorings, ceilings, materials, textures, coatings, modern style furniture, lamps, constructions, colors have been replaced by other, neutral and unstylish elements.

Figure 10: Poros Image Hotel: lobby, source hotel’s site

Figure 11: Xenia of Drama: restaurant source hotel’s site


The Xenia of Drama is a work by A. Konstantinidis’ colleague C. Stamatis, and was built in 1964. It is located in the urban center of the city and had two floors at first. In 1970 the hotel was leased to individuals. In 1979, a new floor was added, which doubled the Hotel’s capacity to 88 beds. Since then the compound has been refurbished three times. This hotel is included in the Association of Greek Architects proposal for being retained as part of modern cultural heritage, which has not yet been accepted. The exterior facades remain the same as they were. Even the colors used then seem to have been maintained, with small differentiations in hues and use of bright colors in the vertical iron elements of the balconies. However the interior space is completely mistreated. The colors, the materials used, the lightening, the coatings, the textures all reveal an ugly, kitsch perception of design choices that definitely do not support the modern ideas originally expressed. In many of the Xenia Hotels that were refurbished and that are still functioning, the interior space seems to be the most susceptible part of new design choices and the easiest way to point towards aesthetic options, that are however contrary to the original vision which established them as buildings of modern cultural heritage. Their interior spaces and original furniture were destroyed, or completely replaced, disrespecting the vision of their designers, as A. Konstantinidis mentioned in one of his last interviews22 “The Xenia I have built are unrecognizable- the colors, the furniture everything has changed. And I began wondering why?”

Figures 12,13: Xenia of Nafplio: Hotel’s lobby, Entrance, source Benaki Museum Photographic Archives

In the Hotel Nafplia Palace, which first opened in 1979 and is part of three hotels ensemble, we can notice the influence of aesthetic templates deriving from Xenia of Nafplio, which was designed by I. Triantafyllidis in 1958 and remains

22 K. Themelis, (2000), “The speech of the master, a conversation with A. Konstantinidis”, Athens: Indiktos.

abandoned23. In this case, it should be mentioned that in the pre-existing part of the hotel buildings, morphological characteristics of the interior and exterior facades have been preserved, such as the main entrance, the fire place and the works of art in the public spaces, as well as the wooden furniture of the bedrooms. This process has benefited the spaces’ aesthetics, as it reflects an authentic impression of modern post war interior architecture in Greece, basically through the bedrooms’ interiors.

Figures 14, 15, 16: Hotel Nafplia Palace: entrance, room, lobby with fireplace, source Hotel’s site

5. conclutions.

Xenia hotels are prominent examples of post war public buildings in Greece. They represent an important part of the cultural heritage of modern Greece, reflecting the vision of a team of architects and their innovating ideas for tourism development of the country, based on the ethical model of compensating hospitality24. The Greek state should retain this built treasure that is the Xenia project as a part of the country’s history. And this act should include all the morphological and functional options of their designers: the shells, the inner and outer spaces with all their matching components, which comprises them – stable, moveable, variable, each expressing its individual form and characteristics. Preservation cannot be conceived of without considering the surroundings, the shells, the materials, the textures, the equipments, the lightening as indelible parts of the design process.

23 “The three hotels which consist of the Xenia of Nafplio were leased to private investors in 2000 for a period of 30 years. As it is reported by members of the Parliament, the leaseholder company functions and cashes in on the two of the three hotels, as the third one (designed by Triantafyllidis) remains closed, ten years after the execution of the agreement. The refurbishment of this hotel hasn’t taken place although this procedure was included as a term of the agreement. Additionally, although Acronafplia region is part of an archaeological area, which restricts new constructions, the hotel company has already built a new resort besides Nafplia Palace” Newspaper Avgi, by H. Miliou, 15/08/2010 24 The term is suggested by Panagiotis Ilias. According to Greek Mythology Xenios Zeus was as the god protector of the laws, also protector of the visitors asking for hospitality. This institution has been continued into the Greek tradition. A premise for this is the mutual respect between the host and the visitor.


The lack of one of them disturbs the balance of the entity and distorts the holistic procedure of the design, as well as the period expressed through it. This is a fact revealed through case studies that in their majority through reconsidering the initial modern view led to a deformed aesthetics of a new image. Modernization doesn’t mean the change of the synthetic components but the conservation and retaining of these characteristics that compose the general picture. «Each material has its own voice and a low or high intonation. An Architect knows how to reveal this voice and make it resound by agreeably matching materials in a construction and placing them in their proper position. Composing his own music, the architect enables his creation to speak and sing to us and even offer us entire symphonies. Analogically every note should remain in place in this design symphony, contributing to the harmony of the sound. The design options in the Xenia Hotels, besides others, reveal an issue of moral nature: the public architecture in contradiction to private architecture, according to A. Konstantinidis, allows for the transmission of authentic ideas and the expression of a “true architecture”, which signals the moral attitude of the architect as a participant and reflector of the social needs. Within the same morality the Xenia Project has defined the policy for tourism development, as a field for compensating hospitality, with the proper respect to the visitor. This policy includes the built environment, not only as a profitable developing area, left adrift at the hands of private investors, but also as a procedure with rules, boundaries and public control.

6. References

Konstandinidis A, (1975), “Elements of self-cognition for a true Architecture”, Athens: Ford Institution

Konstantinidis A, (1981), “Projects + buildings, A. Konstantinidis”, Athens: Agra Editions and A. Konstantinidis

Konstantinidis A, (1992), “The Architecture of Architecture- Diary Notes”, Athens: Agra ed.

Moussa M, (2012), “Xenia Project 1950-1967. Reapproaching the role of Post- War Modern Architecture in Greece”, Proceedings, 1rst International Conference on Architecture and Urban Design, 19-21 April 2012, Epoca University.

Themelis K, (2000), “The speech of the master, a conversation with A. Konstantinidis”, Athens: Indiktos ed.

Vrychea A, (2003), “Habitation and houses, investigating the boundaries of architecture”, Athens: Ellinika Grammata ed.

Development of Hotel Cooperations: An

Empirical and Theoretical Analysis Within the

German Market

STEINHAUSER CAROLIN

Professor of Hospitality Management at Campus Dresden, SRH Hochschule Berlin – The International Management University, Dresden, GERMANY


ABSTRACT

The German hotel market is very heterogenic and diversified. 5% of all hotels account for 50% of total revenues in Germany. Furthermore, 95% of the hotels in Germany have less than 1 million Euro turnover. 88% of all German hotels have less than 50 rooms. A possible solution for these small hotels could be the access to a hotel cooperation.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the development of leading hotel cooperations from 2004-2014 with a focus on the German market and to investigate which changes are necessary for hotel cooperations in order to remain competitive. For this, we first collected data on 717 hotels of 10 well-known cooperations from 2004-2014 via a web analysis and travel journal research. Second, we evaluated this data and looked at the development of their members’ number. Third, we investigated which kind of hotel cooperation developed positively or lost members during the last 10 years. When data was missing via our online research, we contacted the hotel cooperation and asked for exact numbers (telephone call).

As a result, we found that the size of a hotel cooperation in the year 2004 varied from 20 to 181 hotels (2004: min=20 , max = 181, SD= 55, M=52). Hotel cooperations developed within 10 years in different directions, visible in a cooperation, which has now 28 members, and in 2004 there were still 57 members (2014: min=28, max=202, SD=48, M=76,5). Results show that especially “green cooperations” (bio25-hotels, greenline hotels) with environmental and sustainable aspects have high rates of growth (greenline hotels ∆ 260% and bio-hotels: ∆ 262,5%). Our additional literature analysis emphasizes that guests prefer hotels with health-oriented and natural products. Furthermore, we recognize that clear and self explanatory brand names like romantic hotels have higher member numbers in comparison to cooperations like VCH hotels or CPH hotels which need more of an explanation. A further look on the actual business models of hotel cooperations show the necessity of a redesign. Business models have to be more flexible and not totally standardized. Further results based on several analyses will be presented at the conference.

Key Words: hotel cooperation, member development, empirical analysis, business models

25 bio = organic

1 INTRODUCTION

More and more sales challenges face the hospitality industry. How can a hotel manager gain new guests? Which distribution channels are efficient and affordable? Where does a hotel acquire qualified sales employees? These are all questions that apply to many hoteliers in everyday business as distribution becomes more and more laborious, complex, and difficult to handle. The German hotel market is very heterogenic and diversified. 5% of all hotels account for 50% of total revenues in Germany. Furthermore, 95% of the hotels in Germany have less than 1 million Euro turnover. 88% of all German hotels have less than 50 rooms (Warnecke & Luthe, 2014, p. 39). Standardized chain hotels with central guided programs that facilitate distribution management are easily maintained, but for private, small and medium sized hotels this can be hard to handle (Gardini, 2010). A possible solution for these small hotels could be the access to a hotel cooperation. A hotel cooperation is the horizontal aggregation of legal and economic independent hotels with the goal to achieve synergy effects which a single enterprise alone could not realize (Freyberg & Gruner & Lang, 2012, p. 35). Responding to the ever-growing specialization in the hotel industry, a hotel cooperation offers the flexibility to fulfill the special requirements of the individual market and to associate with the appropriate cooperation. Some of the oldest cooperations are “Romantikhotels” and the so called “Ringhotels”. Regardless of whether it is a resort or city hotel, a family-run four star house or a luxurious spa hotel, a deluxe or a budget hotel, more than 56 hotel cooperations exist with brand character on the German market (N.N., 2014). Hotel cooperations are trendy and a possible solution for the middle-class to retain competitive with chain hotels.

2 Research Design and Hypothesis

The aim of this paper is to analyse the development of leading hotel cooperations from 2004-2014 with a focus on the German market and to investigate which changes are necessary for hotel cooperations in order to remain competitive. This study is based on a deductive approach, which means that we start with a compelling social theory test its implications and collect data. That is, we move from a more general level to a more specific one. Looking at the literature 3 hypothesis (h1, h2, h3) occur to investigate:

Hypothesis 1 (h1): If the German hotel market is heterogenic and diversified, then hotel cooperations have to develop positively

Hypothesis 2 (h2): If hotel cooperations have self-explanatory brand names, then they are more successful in terms of member numbers.

Hypothesis 3 (h3): If new and flexible business models are introduced to a hotel cooperation, then it needs to increase its ability to remain competitive.

In our empirical research we first collected data on 717 hotels of 10 well-known cooperations form 2004-2014 via a web analysis and travel journal research.


Second, we evaluated this quantitative data and looked at the development of their members’ number. Third, we investigated which kind of hotel cooperation developed positively or lost members during the last 10 years. When data was missing via our online research, we contacted the hotel cooperation and asked for exact numbers (telephone call). For the 3rd hypothesis we conducted a personal interview with a leading hotel cooperation in order to get a more detailed insight. This study benefits of a mixed method approach to data collection. We use the term mixed methods research here to refer to all procedures collecting and analysing both quantitative and qualitative data in the context of a single study. Our objectives are to describe how and why hotel cooperations develop in this direction and to answer our mentioned hypothesis.

3 EmPircal and Theoretical Analyses

We focused our analyses on cooperations with hotels between 20-100 rooms and not on cooperations for chain hotels, very big hotels or luxury five star hotels. Actually, the well-known brand Best Western is not evaluated, because - due to own information - they do not feel like a hotel cooperation. Furthermore, so far they only accepted hotels with more than 50 rooms (according to a magazine interview in April 2014 this strategy is currently changing) (Smola, 2014, p.3). A critical mass of hotels is essential in order to have affordable member fees and to achieve memorable brand awareness. This size today compromises of at least 70 hotels. 3.1 DEVELOPMENT OF HOTEL COOPERATIONS Subsequently, you find a selection of well-known medium sized hotel cooperations within the last ten years with variations in their member numbers. Within these ten years, hotel cooperations have developed in different directions. This is visible in a cooperation named Landidyll, which now has 28 members, though in 2004 there were still 57 members. The Median increased from 52,00 to 76,5 hotels, the mean from 71,7 to 86,6 hotels over ten years and the maximum increased from 181 to 202 hotels, which means a general positive size development26. As a new cooperation. Greenline Hotels started in 2001 with 7 hotels and was, in 2004, still the smallest cooperation.

26 The results show a positive correlation, although they are according to our SPSS

analyses not significant. This is probably based on the small sample size.

N Valid N Missing Mean Median SD Variance Minimum Maximum

2004 10,00 0,00 71,7 52,00 55,29 3056,9 20,00 181,00

2014 10,00 0,00 86,6 76,50 48,61 2362,9 28,00 202,00

Figure 1: Development of hotel cooperations 2004/201427 Interestingly it is not the absolute numbers that are intriguing, but the rates of growth (see figure 2). Results show that especially “green cooperations” (bio-hotels, greenline hotels) with organic, environmental and sustainable aspects have high rates of growth (greenline hotels ∆ 260% and bio-hotels: ∆ 262,5% ). Both greenline hotels and biohotels developed from a very small an unknown cooperation to a remarkable size. Flairhotels, Ringhotels and Landidyll hotels have negative rates of growth. However, we have to consider that Ringhotels and Flairhotels had a much higher base level in 2004 than other cooperations and therefore rates of growth are more difficult to achieve. Suzanne Weiß, the general manager of Ringhotels quoted, that they are planning an increase of members to 200 hotels by 2020 (Weiß, 2014).

27 Own research from Nov. 2013- March 2014 based on 717 hotels via a web

analysis / a travel journal research and personal phone calls.


Figure 2: Rates of growth of hotel cooperations 2004/201428 Romantikhotels are continuously on a high level and could also generate new members during the last years. For this cooperation more hotels apply for membership that can be accepted each year. Do hotel’s guests set a high value on nature, organic and sustainability or do these cooperations gain more members because of successful marketing activities? For sure a combination of both: Actual investigations show the trend of people focusing on health-oriented products and the responsible handling of natural resources is increasing in our society (Warnecke & Luthe, 2014, p. 77 / 170ff.). A current survey of hoteltonight.com shows that 97% of hotels in Germany, Austria and Switzerland respect eco-friendly processes, e.g. energy saving lamps and towel changing on guest demand. For German travellers an environmental useful handling is much more important than in other nations. The Online Travel Agency Agoda launched a study with 57,000 users: 58% of all respondents prefer to stay in a eco-friendly hotel, but only 39% are willing to pay 10 US$ more for this environmental respect. 54% of German travellers prefer “green hotels”, although but only 27% are willing to pay for this environmental aspect. The biggest fans of green hotels are Chinese guests. 79%

28 Own research from Nov. 2013- March 2014 based on 717 hotels via a web analysis / a travel journal research and personal phone calls.

of respondents from China favour these kinds of hotels. (Henning, 2014) These data proves the importance of a green orientation and the correlation between guest wishes and the development of hotel cooperations. Coming back to our 1st hypothesis (h1), the assumption could not be confirmed. The positive development of a hotel cooperation depends on their characteristics and the target group of the hotel cooperation. Green cooperations have much higher rates of growth than others. Therefore, this hypothesis could only be confirmed for special interest hotel cooperations. 3.2 BRAND MANAGEMENT OF HOTEL COOPERATIONS Looking at the different hotels in figure 2, we can see that there are a few hotels with self-explaining brand names (Familotel or Romantikhotels) and some with only abbreviations like CPH29 or VCH30. The second hypothesis deals with the question if a cooperation has a clear association / branding, do they have more members. Branding a hotel is substantially different from branding a line of consumer products. Brand Management can be extremely challenging as managers have to consider how to market both the tangible elements of the hotel experience (room, infrastructure, food etc.) and the intangible ones (Hänssler 2004). Hotels, at their core, offer an intangible product a good nights stay. An entry to a hotel cooperation is useful if the hotel is gaining new guests and the hotel cooperation can push the distribution activities (e.g. room occupancy). But guests of a hotel cooperation need a clear image of the cooperation and the core competences. In Germany, there are so many generally named cooperations with names like City, Country, Top, Herz (Heart) that it can lead to brand dilution. Especially international guests need a clear identification of the cooperation (Prange, 2009). Guests have to understand easily and immediately the unique selling points, otherwise a cooperation can lead to a erosion of brand profiles. Familotels appeal to family travellers, Romantic hotels to couples with the wish for a romantic stay, but what are the target groups of a ringhotels or an akzent hotels? Although these two cooperations are well known in circle of experts, guests will have problems identifying their unique characteristics according to their appellation.

29 CPH is the abbreviation for City Partner Hotels, Conference Partner Hotels and Country Partner Hotels 30 VCH is the abbreviation for Verband Christlicher Hoteliers e.V.


Figure 3: Growth rates und member numbers of “brand” and “no-brand” hotel cooperations 2004/201431

A hotel cooperation should primarily appeal to the hotel’s guests and reflect their wishes. For abstract brand names more communication activities are essential in order to create a clear consumer image. These cooperations need much higher marketing budgets in order to create strong brands. In our investigation we divided our hotels in 2 groups: One group with self-explaining names and a second group with more abstract, explicable cooperations names. In practice we have one “brand group” consisting of Bio-Hotels, Familotel, GreenLine hotels, Landidyll Hotels, Romantikhotels and one “no-brand group” with Akzent hotels, CPH hotels, Flair-hotels, Ringhotels and VCH hotels. As you can see in figure 3 in a second step we looked on the development of the member numbers between 2004 and 2014 and got the following results:

2004 2014 Valid 5 5 N

Missing 0 0 Mean 80,4 84,00 Median 61,0 81,0

no brand

SD 46,1 29,12

31 Own research from Nov. 2013- March 2014 based on 717 hotels via a web

analysis / a travel journal research and personal phone calls.

GrowthRate:∆4,48%

GrowthRate:∆+41,59%

GrowthRate:∆+41,59%

Variance 2131,3 848,0 Minimum 46,0 51,00 Maximum 156,0 130,00

Valid 5 5 N

Missing 0 0

Mean 63 89,2

Median 33,0 72,0

SD 67,50 66,7

Variance 4557,5 4451,7

Minimum 20,00 28,00

brand

Maximum 181,00 202,00

Table 1: Statistical SPSS results

In the brand group there are some cooperations, which are relatively new founded and therefore still very small. The maximum of hotels in 2004 and 2014 is higher than in the control group. Whereas hotels in the brand group could realize growth rates of over +40%, the hotels in the no-brand group showed minor growth rates between 2004-2014. Thus, our 2nd hypothesis could be confirmed, that if hotel cooperations have self-explaining brand names, then they are more successful in terms of member numbers. A hotel cooperation has common guidelines and standard procedures which have to be respected, in order to guarantee the brand quality (Jaeschke & Fuchs. 2011). This is often not easy for hotel owners, to give up part of their flexibility. In a further step we will look at current business models of hotel cooperations in order to check our third hypothesis. 3.3 BUSINESS MODELS OF HOTEL COOPERATIONS A further look on the personality of hotel owners and managers show that these are often very individual personalities with tacking their goals on ones own account. Jens Diekmann the founder of Romantikhotels said: “A hotel cooperation is like a good marriage, both gain something new and both lose independency, therefore a good check is necessary in advance” (Prange, 2009, p. 214). To join a hotel cooperation should be an intensive consideration and an appreciation of values. Usually a hotel has to pay a special entry fee and a monthly fee for the participation in a hotel cooperation with a fixed set of services. A membership lasts at least 12 months. While traditional business models focus on large vertical span of activities, new models are distinguished by large horizontal business portfolios, with a smaller vertical range typical of manufacturing (Bieger und Rüegge-Stürm 2002). External and internal forces have been eroding the traditional business model; but this has not been a slow, gentle re-shaping. Over a period of a few years, the global recession, the rise of social media and advancements in hotel technology has


combined with a myriad of other factors to reveal the new face of business (Amersdorfer & Bauhuber & Oellrich, 2010, p.3 ff). Successful business models create a heuristic logic that connects technical potential with the realization of economic value. In the most basic sense, a business model is the method of doing business by which a company can sustain itself - that is, generate revenue. The business model spells-out how a company makes money by specifying where it is positioned in the value chain (Rappa, 2014). Looking on the current business models of hotel cooperations they are often standardized and not very flexible. Hotels can book a marketing and sales package and have to follow special rules and quality standards (Prange, 2009, p. 202). Current developments in the hospitality industry show more flexibility in guest wishes. This desired flexibility should also be transferred to hotel cooperations. To maximise value-development each hotel requires a flexible business model that creates potential for a situation-adapted strategy. A hotel manager does not want to book a full service unity; furthermore, a combination of different performance aspects would be appealing. According to Bieger, the following eight dimensions have to be considered when developing a new business model. The later can be illustrated using a potential business model for an hotel cooperation:

Dimensions Objectives Activities

Performance system For which hotel which use? Target hotels and target benefits?

Not each hotel fits for each cooperation. Analysing the need of a hotel (efficient support, current activities).

Communication concept

How are the produced offerings positioned and communicated in the relevant market?

By building an self-explaining cooperation umbrella trademark, with the focus on online communication and social media.

Profit concept How are revenues to be realized? Online and offline sales support of a cooperation.

Concept extension Which new produced extensions get evaluated?

Initiation of new technology programs and cooperations. Measurable quantity of online distribution channels.

Configuration of competence

Which core competencies are essential?

Creating innovative and memorable guest experiences in a special field by networking with other service providers.

Form of organization What is the scope, division of labour and incentive system in the hotel cooperation?

Concentration on own competencies, which create value for the customers; outsourcing of less efficient or

effective units to partners.

Cooperation concept Who are the potential partners? OTA’s, Online reputation management tools, retail industry, new online platforms, tourism firms, hardware suppliers, policy and education.

Coordination concept Which coordination concept is chosen?

A balancing act between a modular offering set and a holistic brand approach is necessary.

Table 2: A Business Model for a hotel cooperation

(own table according to Bieger & Rüegge-Stürm, 2002, p. 123 and 128)

The successful implementation of a new business model depends on the configuration of the referred dimensions. The goal of each business model should be to create value for customers (=hotels). Current developments in the hospitality industry show more flexibility in guest wishes. This desired flexibility should also be transferred to hotel cooperations. To maximise value-development each hotel requires a flexible business model that creates potential for a situation-adapted strategy. A hotel manager does not want to book a full service package, furthermore a combination of different service aspects would be more useful. Guests want to create individual hotel stays via Internet booking Engines (IBE). Singular modules can be booked directly online and an individual package emerges. In a personal interview with Suzann Heinemann, founder and general manager of greenline hotels, we conducted that this cooperation changed her business model strategy dramatically last year. They now provide their hotels with a “greenline-max” offer with offline entries, online services, faire participation and consulting options. For clients with different wishes they offer “greenline-flex” which includes an online representation and a booking engine. If hotel mangers like more support they can additionally ask for more assistance. In 2013 from all new members (approx.. 20 hotels), 2/3 booked greenline flex and 1/3 booked greenline max. IT is important that a few minimum criteria be maintained in order to guarantee quality standards and a corporate identity. A strict acceptance of a uniform group of hotels is essential for brand creation. A similar quality level has to be established in order to earn guest’s trust and commitment (Gardini 2009). The balancing act between modular offerings and a holistic brand approach is challenging. The focus of individual elements lies especially in the online field with new technologies (e.g google hotel finder, IBE, reputation management tool, property management tool etc.). For many family owned hotels the mass of new technologies and online offers are hard to evaluate and hotel cooperation can be of use. Therefore, a participation check of the potential new client makes sense, with the goal to create an individual cooperation package for each hotel. Without


quantitative evidence our qualitative interview underlined the necessity of redesigned business models. Then a hotel cooperation attempt to increase its ability to remain competitive. Therefore, our third hypothesis can be confirmed. 4 conclusionS This study has identified some empirical evidence about the development of hotel cooperation form 2004 / 2014. In a nutshell, hotel cooperations have developed in different directions over the last 10 years. Results show that especially “green cooperations” with environmental and sustainable aspects have high rates of growth. Our additional literature analysis emphasizes that guests prefer hotels with health-oriented and natural products. Furthermore, we recognize that clear and self-explaining brands have higher member numbers. Kinds of “snapshot” of the situation of current business models were presented. Business models have to be more flexible and not totally standardized. The efficiency of hotel cooperations and therefore a differentiation from chain hotels depends largely upon the realization of synergy effects, especially in the online field. Our h1 could not be confirmed; our h2 and h3 could be proved. A study showed that hotels belonging to a cooperation had a better economic development than individual standalone hotels (Henschel, 2009, p. 58.) In the future, further analysis will follow up the empirical evidence suggested in this study and will be carried out to gain a deeper insight for positive or negative developments. REFERENCES Amersdorffer, D. & Bauhuber, F. & Oellrich, J. (2010), Das Social Web – Internet,

Gesellschaft, Tourismus, Zukunft. In D. Amersdorffer & F. Bauhuber & J. Oellrich (Eds.), Social Web im Tourismus – Strategien, Konzepte Einsatzfelder (pp.3-16), Berlin: Springer.

Bieger, T. & Rüegge-Stürm, J. (2002), Net Economy - Die Bedeutung der

Gestaltung von Beziehungskonfigurationen. In T. Bieger et al. (Eds.), Zukünftige Geschäftsmodelle (pp. 15-33) Berlin: Springer.

Freyberg von, B & Gruner, A. & Lang, M. (2012), ErfolgReich in der

Privathotellerie, Impulse für Profilierung und Profit, Stuttgart: Matthaes Verlag GmbH.

Gardini, M. (2010), Grundlagen der Hotellerie und des Hotelmanagements, Hotelbranche – Hotelbetrieb und Hotelimmobilie, München: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH.

Hänssler, K.H. (2004), Management in der Hotellerie und Gastronomie -

Betriebswirtschaftliche Grundlagen (6th edition), München: Oldenbourg Verlag. Henning, Carsten (2014), Grüne Hotels: Umweltfreundlichkeit zahlt sich irgendwie

aus, Xing News April 23, 2014. Henschel, K. (2008), Hotelmanagement (3rd edition), München: Oldenbourg Verlag. Jaeschke, A. M & Fuchs, W. (2011), ‘Zusammenarbeit in der Hotellerie –

Funktionelle Entkoppelung, Betreiberformen und Kooperationen’. In K.H. Hänssler (Eds.), Management in der Hotellerie und Gastronomie: Betriebswirtschaftliche Grundlagen (pp.56-69), München: Oldenbourg Verlag.

N.N. (2014a), ‘Mangel an Mitgliedern’, Cost & Logis, 18(4), pp.1-3.. Prange, S. (2009), Kooperationen – Von der Vertriebsplattform zu Markeninhalten

mit einer rigorosen Kundenorientierung im voranschreitenden Käufermarkt. In M. Gardini (Eds.), Handbuch Hospitality Management – Managementkonzepte, Wettbewerbskontext und Unternehmenspraxis (pp. 211-233), Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Fachverlag..

Rappa, M. (2014), BUSINESS MODELS ON THE WEB, in:

http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html, (30.4.2014) Smola, M. (2014), ‘Ich sehe keine Grenzen’, Cost & Logis, 18(4), p. 4. Warnecke, T. & Luthe, M. (2014), Hotelmarkt Deutschland 2014, Berlin: IHA-

Service GmbH. Weiß, S. (2014), ‘ 200 Mitglieder bis 2020 angepeilt‘, Cost & Logis 18(5), p. 16.


The Internet Impacts’ on the Travel Habits of the

Hungarian Tourists

JUDIT GROTTE PHD.

Associate Professor, Head of Hotel & Hospitality Management specialization, School Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality; University of Applied Sciences Budapest

ABSTRACT

When people travel anywhere these days the first place they look for information is the Internet. Due to this, a new demand has come into sight for complex, easily available and reliable information. The fast development of Information Technology has changed the tourism industry. New trends, new suppliers (on-line travel agencies, low-cost carriers, budget hotels etc.), ’new’ well-informed customers appeared on the market. Among the new technologies, internet-based booking systems can be considered most widespread. A new tool appeared in tourism marketing: the ’impersonal’ on-line sale; on-line shopping. As pointed out above, we have to realize that a new type of tourism, E-tourism, will replace traditional tourism; because it can satisfy the new virtual demand of our modern society. In my primary research, I was curious to know if the travelling habits of the hungarian consumers were influenced by the above mentioned phenomena.

Keywords: E-tourism, On-line travel agency, Low-cost airline, E-ticket

INTRODUCTION Tourism worldwide is one of the most dynamically developing sectors. The fast development of information and communication technologies has changed the tourism industry. New trends, new suppliers (on-line travel agencies, low-cost carriers, etc.), ’new’ well-informed customers appeared on the market. The expansion of the Internet has showed a new direction for stakeholders in tourism, e.g.: for the suppliers of commercial accommodations, catering units, additional products (e.g. insurance, rent-a-car services, money exchange, etc.) as well as transportation companies. A new tool appeared in tourism marketing: the ’impersonal’ on-line sale; on-line shopping. New notions emerged in the”dictionary of tourism” such as on-line travel agencies, low-cost airlines, E-tickets. Since the emergence of the Internet, travel planning (e.g., travel information search and booking) has always been one of the main reasons that people use the Internet.(Buhalis 2003).When people travel anywhere these days the first place they look for information is the Internet. Due to this, a new demand has come into sight for complex, easily available and reliable information. As a consequence of today’s accelerated lifestyle, traveling habits have also changed.

Inspite of the growth of the practical importance of tourism, the scientists have started to involve with its theory just in the 1920-30, and had tried to attampt to define the definition of tourism. Since then Plog (1972), Cohen (1972, 1974), Smith (1989) made researches on the typology of tourists, Bernecker (1962), Morrison (1992), Holloway (1994), Tasnádi (2002) involved with the motivation of


the tourists, Leiperhez (1981), Kaspar (1983) Lengyel (1994) focused on the system of tourism, Puczkó - Rátz (2002) examined the impacts of tourism. But not too many researchers involved with the relation between tourism and the internet, in Hungary almost noone. The recognition of this shortage motivated me to examine the impacts of the application of the internet from the point of view of the customers. rationale The goal of my empirical reserach is to give a complex picture of the different forms of internet’s application during the leisure travel organization. The relevance of the survey in 2009 was provided by the following factors: 1. More and more travel agencies (60%) operate via websites in addition to”traditional” printed travel brochures in Hungary. (source: http://www.piacesprofit.hu/?r=9387)

2. As of the beginning of January 2008 the International Air Transport Assocciation (IATA) will launch E-tickets for ”traditional”airlines. The IATA (International Air Transport Association), which represents international traditional airlines, wanted to put an end to paper-based flight tickets by the end of 2007. It means that all international airlines should have launched the e-ticket from the 1st of January 2008, but due to some technical problems it happened only from the 1st of May in Hungary. (Turizmus Trend 2006/9)

3. The number of the internet users is constantly increasing. (source: http://www.nrc.hu/hirek?&news_id=403&page=details&newsprint=I )

4. The turnover of the low-cost airlines in Hungary is growing rapidly. (source: http://fapadosutazas.hu/cikk/?id=146&r=7)

Due to the rapid changes of the technology, the role of the new online tools like social media and mobile applications formed a very strong influencing power on the customers’ decision making procedure on travelling.

As a trend research, in 2013 I’d completed my research with the above mentioned factors.

5. The launch of Facebook heralded the beginning of a new concept in the online travel experience: sharing. Travellers turned to Facebook (and later Twitter, FourSquare, Pinterest, Instagram et al) as a platform to, let's face it, show off to their "friends" where they had been or were planning to go on holiday. Most consumer-facing travel companies now have a presence on at least one of these networks, allowing them to interact with customers and – still in its relative infancy – make bookings. (Kevin May 2014) (Figure 1)

Figure 2: Social media sites 2012-2013

Using the web to discover and discuss other people's experiences can help you decide where next to take a holiday. It's called "Travel 2.0" by some - a twist on Web 2.0, the name given to websites that are all about social networking, online communities, slick technologies and user-powered content. (Ryan Carson 2006) 42% of online adults use multiple social networking sites, but Facebook remains the platform of choice. (Duggan & Smith 2013)

85% of the hungarians, between the age of 18-75 who are using internet, have profile on the facebook, Based on the Research of the NRC Market Research company- among 1000 hungarian internet users. (http://www.mmonline.hu/cikk/ezeken_a_kozossegi_oldalakon_toltjuk_az_idot 2014.03.06)


6. Though not directly responsible for the evolution of online travel the launch of the Apple IPhone- giving the users access to the web via their handsets- had a huge influence on what became the start of travel services on mobile devices. (Kevin May 2014)

In the end of the year 2013, 29% (2,4 million) of the Hungarian adults-mainly young educated men from Budapest- had smartphones, based on the research of eNET-Telekom. 60% of them use the smartphones for writing emails, searching on the internet and using social media sites, mainly Facebook. (http://www.enet.hu/hirek/mar-okostelefon-felhasznalo-a-magyar-lakossag-tobb-mint-%C2%BC-e/?lang=hu)

Research Method

Before the beginning of my researches I had defined those goals of examination along my researhes went by. To be able to fulfill my goal, with the help of secondary and primary researches I’ve examined: the impacts of the tools of information and communication technologies on the system of tourism, the phenomena of E-tourism in the world and Hungary, the usage of the appliances of E-marketing in tourism, and through the attitude of the customers the differences between the old and new customers, and the relations between the suppliers of the tourism industry and the new technologies.

Although the application of the internet is significant in the tourism industry, there is no relevance source (literature) in Hungary which ensure the importance of my researches. On the demand side: the concentrated tourism market, I’ve chosen the quantitative research method and within that the format of the questionnaire. In my primary research, I was curious to know if the travelling habits of the hungarian consumers were influenced by the above mentioned phenomena in the year of 2009 and whether further changes occurred in the year of 2013 compared to 2009. Travel 2009, the 32nd Travel Expo here in Budapest, ensured the opportunity for the 40000 visitors; Travel 2013, the 36th Travel Expo ensured the opportunity for the 45000 visitors to meet numerous traditional and online travel agencies. My survey was conducted during the Travel Expo. The questionnaire

In my research I’ve examined the different leisure travel organization habbits of the customers, the relations between travel information, the internet and the accessibility of the travel services, and the attitude of the customers to the off- and online travel agencies’ services.

Sample from the concentrated tourism market: Travel Expo 2009. and 2013. The survey was administered among 1500 visitors between the ages of 14-70. The structure of the questionnaire- The questionnaire of the exploratory

researches of customers

The structure of the customers’ questionnare include six cascading part in the topic of the leisure travel organization from the general information about the travelling habits (like the frequency of the travels, the motivation, the type of travel organization) to the specific ones in coherence with the internet (like booking the offline and online travel agencies’services online, searching travel information on the internet, and the types of online payment methods). The dempographic figures (sex, age, level of education, place of the resident) can be found in the end of the questionnare. Focusing on the order of the questions my aspect was to start with the general travel habbits and continue with the special needs and methods of travel organization particulary the role of the internet. At the closed type of questions I’ve applied the nominal level of measurement. I’ve measured only those variations which attributes match to the exclusion of completeness and corelation.

Because of the lack of the primary researches in my project the ratio of the open questions are higher than the closed ones. I also had to explore the possible answers, because there were no predefined answers yet (I could haved used). Cause of the open questions, for certain types of questions 100 different kind of answers arrived. To be able to process the data I’ve divided the answers into different codegroups, and made the data cleaning. The encoding was a very important issue because of the output of my researches, therefore I’d made it by myself posteriorly. Therefore in 2013 the questionnaire was simplified, and completed with some new aspects, like the effect of the economic crisis on the frequency of the travelling, and with the usage of new tools like social media and mobile applications. Testing and proofing the questionnaires

Before the field work would have started, I’ve tested the questionnaires on those sophomore tourism students of our College who became the interviewers. My goal was to find and eliminate the possible problems of the questionnaire at the ambiguous or not clearly understand issues. The questionnaire is a thorough lack of knowledge of adverse effects in the examination, such embarrassing situations, long lead time for questioning. Therefore, students from each participating in the survey that asked them to read aloud the survey questions and interpret them as well. Having thus 'interviewed' questionnaires, no one has reported any problems, the interviewers that the instructions were given to the questions verbatim in the questionnaire, as described on the basis of their research to the success of implementation.


Further on I asked the interviewers to be very polite with the consumers and appear to be well maintained and clean (Babbie (1998)). The well-prepared interviewers asked their question personally on the research fields. the results of the field research Henceforward I will evaluate the answers based on the topic of the leisure travel organization.

The survey was administered among 1500 (N=1500) visitors between the ages of 14-70. Demographical features (Table 1)

Table 1 Demographical features in 2009 and 2013

2009 (number of

visitors) 2013 (number of

visitors) Sex

Women 825 903 (78)!

Men 675 597

Age

14-18 46 38

19-25 465 471

26-35 346 326

36-50 324 366

51-65 265 263

66- 54 36

Level of Education

Primary school 62 38

Secondary school 562 663 (101)!

College/University 808 761

Other 62 30

No answer 6 8

They are from

Budapest 1142 952

Countryside 358 548 (190)!

As we can see it on the table, during the past 4 years the following significal changes occurred in the demographic features. The number of the women visitors increased (78), and on the other hand the number of the men visitors decreased. Focusing on the age not too many differences happened. Among the participants, the biggest difference was showed in the secondary school category in the level of

education. It is also remarkable that more and more people from the countryside had participated on the Travel Expo. General information about the travelling habbits of the hungarian travellers

Including the questions, such as: ’How often do you travel?’, ’What factors influence the frequency of your travelling?’, ’What is the motivation behind your trip?’(more motivations can be ticked) ’Who organises your trip?’ In 2009, 40% of the visitors travel once a year, 32% travel twice a year, 18% three times a year and the remaining 10% twelve times a year. Those who are travelling twelve times a year, mainly those, who are visiting their friends and family, who are living in the countryside. In 2013, 33% of the visitors travel once a year, 30% travel twice a year, 18% (the same in 2009) three times a year 6% twelve times a year, and the remaining 4% not even once a year. This figure (4%) was the biggest difference between 2009 and 2013. I was interested in about the factors, which influence the frequency of the hungarian travellers’ travelling. The result was not surprising. Most of our visitors can not afford travelling quite often because of the lack of money, on the other hand because of the decreased freetime, and it seems that fashion does not play any role in their frequency of travelling. In the category of Other, some consumers have mentioned the season, the mood, the concrete programme – the supply, and the good company in 2009, but in 2013 the effect of the economic crisis also appeared. Due to the economic crisis the Hungarian tourists either cut down the costs of travelling with choosing lower category of accommodation, or make the length of the trip shorter. In both years the most popular motivations were: 1.Holiday- on the first place: longer period (1-2 weeks), mainly summer time, when most of the children are free of school, 2. City tours: long-week ends, many times due to the national holidays, the employees do not need to ask for days off, therefore the Hungarian travel agencies always put together special packages for this period.3. VFR – Visiting Friends and Relatives: in Hungary everything (job opportunities, business, entertainment facilities, etc) is very much concentrated on the capital Budapest, so the result is very understandable. 4. Wellness –Hungary is very famous about her spas, thermal- and wellness treatments, and mainly during the national holidays, the tourists are very keen on these places. The other leisure motivations were: the sport, language course, and the religion, with not too many answers. In 2009 and in 2013 as well most of the travellers organize their trips mainly themselves, secondly the travel agency follows, thirdly the family. There was no significant changes in the figures. Specific information about the travelling habbits of the Hungarian travellers

in coherence with the internet

Including the questions, such as: ’If you go to a travel agency (offline), what are the services you take?’ ’Do you have a favourite travel agency?’,’Do you use Internet


for finding travel information?’,’If you organize your trip on your own, which websites do you use?’,’Do you read the travel Forum, when you organize your trip?’, ’Have you ever ordered any tourist services through an off or on-line travel agency?’ If the Hungarians using offline travel agencies for their trips they buy the following services: 1. Accommodation, 2. Insurance, 3. Programme, 4. Flight ticket, 5. Coachticket,6. Car rental,7. Money exchange, 8. Package tour, 9. Railticket Both years 75% of the travellers do not have any favourite travel agencies. The remaining 25% (mainly the age group above 50) named the well-known Hungarian travel agencies with reasons, like: reliable, well-known, reasonable prices, good standard of services, great programmes, well-prepared tour guides, good personal experiences. Most of the travellers answered their own experiences as the most important aspect here. Then it was followed by the quality of the services and then the price, and at last but not least the opinions of their friends play important influencing factors in these decision making procedures. From the answers it turned out that most of the travellers are not able to make a difference between an on-line travel agency and an off-line travel agency with web site. Unfortunately, it also turned out that the visitors did not have enough information about the national on-line travel agencies eg.: Hurranyaralunk.hu; Go.hu. In 2009, 83% of the travellers used the Internet for finding travel information. In 2013 was not just higher this number (92%), but in this year the visitors highlighted the role of the social media, mainly Facebook, and the mobile devices as influencing factors in their decision making process. In both years the number one website among the travellers’ preferences is the Google, which is followed by the different Internet portals like the www.startlap.hu especially the sites of lap.hu; and the Information providers like the www.dunakanyar.hu, or the websites of a concrete destination. Here below are the results in each category (Table2 the websites the travellers use for finding travel information).

Table 2 The websites the travellers use for finding travel information

1. For accommodation : www.szallaskereses.hu; www.danubiushotels.hu; the websites of a concrete hotel; www.szallas.hu, the websites of a concrete city;www.hostels.com; www.hostelworld.com; www.accore.com; www.neckermann.hu; www.booking.com; www.hurranyaralunk.hu; www.expedia.hu; www.limba.com; www.hunguesthotels.hu; www.octopus.hu

2. For flight booking: www.malev.hu (2009); www.wizzair.com; www.airfrance.fr, startutazas.hu; www.skyeurope.com; www.ba.com; www.vilaglato.hu; www.easyjet.com; www.airberlin.com; www.ryanair.com; www.pelikan.hu; www.fapadosutazas.hu; www.airtours.hu 3. For sights: www.tourinform.hu; the website of a concrete country; www.itthon.hu; the website of a concrete city; www.startlap.com 4. For time schedules: www.elvira.hu; www.volan.hu, www.menetrend.hu, www.mavstart.hu; www.bkv.hu; www.bud.hu

5. For car rental: www.hertz.com; www.avis.hu; www.foxautorent.hu

6. For other information:utazas.lap.hu; www.vilagjaro.hu; www.google.hu; www.startlap.hu; www.travelport.com; www.msn.com; horvatorszag.lap.hu; szlovakia-sipalya.lap.hu; www.nagyutazas.hu; www.lastminute.hu; www.utazzolcson.net; www.utazasapro.hu; www.dunakanyar.hu, www.tripadvisor.com (2013) Focusing on the airlines’ websites, we can conclude that the Hungarian consumers do know many low-cost airlines, even more than traditional ones. Unfortunately, the Hungarian National Airline: MALEV bankrupt in 2012. The Internet and e-business have re-regulated the market of air transportation as well. New competitors, the low- cost carriers appeared, such as the Easyjet, Germanwings, Ryanair, Wizzair,etc. The new companies have changed the life of traditional airlines, and gained new customers.(Grotte 2008) It was not surprising that almost everybody wrote about the websites of MAV (Hungarian State Railways Private Company by Shares) and VOLÁN (National Coach Company) in the category of time schedules. In 2009 for the question ’Have you ever ordered any touristic services through an offline travel agency’s website?’ The number of the answers were quite surpirising: Yes, I’ve already ordered: 473 visitors, No, I have not: 931 visitors, No answers: 96 visitors. In 2013, Yes, I’ve already ordered: 495 visitors, No, I have not: 817 visitors, No answers: 188 visitors. It seems that the Hungarians are still afraid of buying travel services online, inspite of the fact that more and more customers are using the online tools for travel organization! On the other hand, the Hungarians are still do not know the differences between the offline and online travel agency. In 2009 52% of the travellers do read the travel Forum, 44% do not, altogether 1447 visitors answered to this question. In 2013 most of the tourists read the Tripadvisor, and some of them reading blogs as well. Most of the travellers think that an ideal on-line travel agency has an up-to-date website, which should contain many reliable, clear information with illustrations and pictures; the work on the website should be easy to manage, eg.: to be able to pay out the services by credit card through the Internet. They believe that good price equals to good travel agency, being fast is important, and that transparency is significant. In 2009 and 2013 for the question ’Have you ever ordered any tourist services through an on-line travel agency? (Table3)

Table 3 ’Have you ever ordered any tourist services through an on-line travel agency?

Answers 2009 Visitors 2013

Yes, I have 273 – 18%!!! 840 – 56% No, never 627 289


No, but I’m going to 538 N.A. 62 visitors did not answer at all in 2009. These are the services what the travellers have ordered. 1.Accommodation, 2.Flight ticket, 3.Insurance, 4. Programme, 5. Package tour,6. Skipass 7. Car rental. The following on-line travel agencies were named: www.hurranyaralunk.hu; www.invia.hu; www.vilaglato.hu; www.lastminute.hu, www.neckermann.hu; www.e-travel.hu; www.go.hu;www.octopustravel.com;www.interfocus.hu;www.accord-travel.ro/en/; www.nettravel.hu; www.booking.com; www.hotelclub.com In 2013, 56% of the visitors have ordered and paid online, for travel services! Comparing to the year of 2009 it is a huge development. It means, that during the past 4 years, the visitors who said in 2009 (36%) “No, but I’m going to”, started to buy travel services online. The difference between 2009 and 2013 in this case is about 38%! That also means that the Hungarian travellers are much more comfortable with the usage of the touristic services in the online environment. The other reason is the e-ticket. One of the most important changes is that the paper-based flight ticket will be replaced by the e-ticket. It is known that on a yearly basis 300 million paper-based tickets are issued, and they cost 10 USD each. On the other hand, e-tickets cost only one dollar. The e-ticket is a special electronic code, which is sent by the airline when the traveller has booked and paid the flight ticket by credit card through the Internet. The use of e-tickets saves 3 billion dollars every year for international air transport. This special method of issuing tickets is not just cheaper, and faster than the traditional one, but it has a positive impact on the environment as well. (Horváth 2006, 2007)

The cost of tours can be high, consequently, good prices always play an important role in the planning and selection of a holiday destination. Nowadays on-line travel agencies with their good prices and special travel packages come before traditional, or off-line travel agencies in popularity. Most off-line or traditional travel agencies have their own websites already. Although, not every traditional travel agencies’ websites allow customers to ’buy’, trend-predictions show that the number of’ information provider’ websites decrease, and on-line sales increase.(Grotte, Veres 2009) conclusionS The Internet is the most important innovation since the development of the printing press (Hoffman 2000). The expression: "Global Village" describes how the globe has been contracted into a village by electric technology.(McLuhan 1964). Tourism is very information-intensive and information is often dubbed the "life-blood" or "cement" of the industry which holds together the different producers

within the travel industry - airlines, tour operators, travel agencies, attractions, car rental, cruise lines, and other supplies.(Zhenhua Liu,2000) It is a well-known fact that the appearance of the internet has fundamentally changed the whole tourism market. New trends, new suppliers (on-line travel agencies, low-cost carriers, etc.) have showed up in the sector. The appearance of low-cost airlines in Hungary (2003), ensured the chances for those who could not afford to use this fast and comfortable means of transportation because of their low income. In my above written primary research, I was curious whether the travelling habits of the hungarian travellers have been influenced by the Internet. Here are the conclusions: Although the tourism market has changed lately, and new suppliers offer good prices, most of the hungarian travellers still can not afford themselves more than one trip a year, because of the lack of money on the first place or the lack of freetime. Their main motivation for travelling is naturally the holiday to relax, but they are also interested in about the different cultures and sights of a capital city, mainly it appeared among those Hungarians who ticked semi-annual at the frequency of traveling, therefore stands the city tour on the second place. Many people have friends and relatives, who are living in another city or country apart from their own, so visiting friends and relatives became the third important motivation among those who are traveling quaterly. Because of the lack of money, most of the travellers organize their trips on their own; and do not use the services of a travel agency, but use the internet to find the tourist information. From my primary research it is also turned out, that the Hungarian travellers can not make a difference between an online travel agency and an offline travel agency with website. Furthermore, it is even more disappointing that many of the travellers have never booked any services through the internet at all. Although, on-line tourism is getting more and more popular among the travellers, it seems that the Hungarians are still afraid of using the services of an on-line travel agency, which can be explained with the lack of money and credit card. In the past 25 years many changes occured in our technological environment. The appearance of the Internet was just the beginning. Due to the new tools of the online environment, we had started to manage our travellings on a different way. We’d learned how to book accommodations online, and travellings by the websites of the Online Travel Agencies. We’d to realized that paper based flight tickets no more exist, but e-ticket. We became good tour organisers by reading the travel blogs and reviews. According to Carson (2006) in the future, we can expect to see more of these "mash-ups" - mixing maps with reviews, ratings, photos and services (car rental, hotels etc). More applications will be built that take advantage of mobile phones.


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Kaspar, C. (1983): Reiseformen: Individzal- und Pauschaltourismus. In: Tourismus Management. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin – New York 1983.p.391-402 Lengyel, Márton (2004) A Turizmus Általános Elmélete, KIT Kft., Budapest MAEVE DUGGAN & AARON SMITH (2013): Social Media Update 2013 http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/12/30/social-media-update-2013/social-media-sites-2012-2013/ Marshall McLuhan (1964): Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, McGraw Hill, NY Kevin May (2014): How 25 years of the Web inspired the travel revolution, The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/aug/26/travelwebsites Mill, R.C. – Morrison, A.M.(1992): The Tourism System.Prentice-Hall International Editions, London Plog, S.C. (1972): Why Destinations Rise or Fall in Popularity. Los Angeles: Travel Research Association Puczkó László-Rátz Tamara: A Turizmus hatásai, Aula Kiadó, Budapest 2002 Smith, Valene (1989) Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism, 2nd. edition, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, USA Tasnádi József (2002): A turizmus rendszere, Aula Kiadó, Budapest

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Veres Zoltán - Grotte Judit (2009): Turizmusmarketing In: Dr. Veres Zoltán: A Szolgáltatásmarketing Alapkönyve; Akadémia Kiadó, Második bővített átdolgozott kiadás; Budapest, 2009. ISBN 978963058572 (459.-479.o.) Zhenhua Liu (2000): Internet Tourism Marketing:Potential and Constraints, Fourth International Conference"Tourism in Southeast Asia & Indo-China: Development, Marketing and Sustainability" http://www.piacesprofit.hu/?r=9387 http://www.nrc.hu/hirek?&news_id=403&page=details&newsprint=I

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http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/12/30/social-media-update-2013/social-media-sites-2012-2013/


Give me the Lowest Price!

An Empirical Analysis of Special Offers in the

German Hotel Market

RONNY BAIERL

Professor of Business Administration with Emphasis on Tourism at Campus

Dresden, SRH Hochschule Berlin – The International Management University,GERMANY

ABSTRACT

Since its beginning in 2011, special offers by HRS Deals earned growing interest in the German hotel market. However, the nature of these offerings is still underresearched. On the one hand, hotel managers are enabled to generate better capacity utilization rates – especially in periods of low demand – and to position their hotel in an innovative and guest friendly manner. On the other hand, these special offers are seen to accelerate the price decline in the market and to potentially harm a hotel’s reputation. Therefore, we carefully have collected data on 107 hotels that participated in a HRS Top Deal between August 2013 and January 2014. Our efforts in collecting this data were threefold. First, we operationalized variables that were directly available from the respective special offer. Second, we complemented this data with information gathered via an intense Internet inquiry. Third, we mystery called the hotels for collecting some more information on their pricing strategy and offer satisfaction. First results show that 64 hotels are located in a major city (< 100k inhabitants), whereby 46 belong to a metropolis (< 500k inhabitants). Only 51 hotels belong to the hotel chain industry. Surprisingly, the average classification was quite high (M=3.7 stars; SD=0.5). The resulting special offer price was 51€ (SD=15€; min=29€; max=129€) with an average discount of 52% (SD=3%; max=62%). On average, 3.9 additional benefits – such as Internet access, parking space, table water, or wellness entrance – were included (SD=1.8; max=9). Our additional Internet inquiry resulted in an average capacity of 121 rooms (SD=71; min=25; max=360) with an average size of 24.5m² (SD=8.1m²; min=10m²; max=65m²). Interestingly, the average distance from the hotel to the main station was quite low (M=14km; SD=16.5km; max=78km). Finally, our investigation via telephone indicates that 35 hotels also propose a special offer after the official booking deadline when mentioning the HRS Top Deal (M=13%; SD=15%; max=51%). While the perceived satisfaction of participating hotels was 5.8 (SD=2.3; scale from 1 [low] to 10 [high]), 30 hotels indicated to proceed in offering such special offers, whereby only five hotels clearly denied. This indicates a high general satisfaction with such special offers. Key Words: Special Offer, HRS Deals, Hotel Market, Empirical Analysis INTRODUCTION

During the last few years special offers typically distributed via relatively new online channels earned growing interest by hotel managers and costumers. However, scholars missed the chance to evaluate the nature of these offers in a systematic way. Therefore, this paper focuses on special offers in the German hotel market. Although other suppliers such as the international corporation TravelBird or the German speaking portal ab-in-den-urlaub-deals.de are present, this paper focuses on special offers by HRS (Hotel Reservation Service) covering


more than 250 000 hotels worldwide and having about 80 million users per year (HRS, 2014a). As such HRS in general and HRS Deals in particular represent the most valuable example for the German hotel market.

Figure 3: Example of a HRS Deal

Figure 1 shows a typical example of such a HRS Deal (HRS, 2014b). The

website offers additional information about the respective hotel, including some photos, the relevant location and the evaluation of former guests. The subsequent paragraph provides some more information about the observable phenomenon of these special offers in the German hotel market.

Characterization of the phenomenon in practice

HRS guarantees three specific criteria (HRS, 2014c). First, every offer involves a top-hotel with at least 50% discount. Second, it compromises hotels with three to five stars. Third, chosen hotels are characterized by a high guest valuation. Moreover, each offer runs for five days, whereby customers have the possibility to be informed via a daily e-mail newsletter. Contrary to other special offers based on a voucher system, at HRS Deals costumers directly book a certain date as current room availabilities are available on the Internet site.

Figure 4: Example of a HRS Deal

Figure 2 shows an overview of room availabilities in relation to the

introducing example above (HRS, 2014b). As each special offer faces a limited contingent of rooms, this illustration shows that – depending on the targeted arrival and departure – room prices vary between the lowest price of £ 36 and the regular price. Moreover, under some circumstance the available rate exceeds this value resulting in a room price of £ 113. However, during some periods of time all capacities are occupied. Finally, it is to highlight that customers pay when departing from the hotel. Therefore, the required credit card is only necessary for guaranteeing the room (HRS, 2014c). Procedure of Analyzing the Special Offers We carefully collected data on 107 hotels that participated in a HRS Deal between August 2013 and January 2014. Our efforts in collecting this data were threefold. First, we operationalized variables that were directly available from the respective special offer. Second, we complemented this data with information gathered via an intense Internet inquiry. Third, we called the hotels for collecting some more information on their pricing strategy and offer satisfaction.


Data taken from the Special Offer

First of all, we were indeed interested in the most important and obvious data point: the discount offered by the respective HRS Deal. As such, we collected the resulting discount score in two ways: First, as an absolute number indicating the percentage of that discount. Second, as a dummy variable indicating if the discount is higher than the minimum of 50% required from HRS (1 if the discount was higher than 50%; 0 otherwise). Moreover, we also recorded the absolute room price to control for effects of premium hotels. In a similar vein, we captured the number of stars from three to five, whereby superior hotels got .5 stars. As an example, a four star superior hotel was included with 4.5 points in that category. In addition, as every special offer clearly indicates the hotel's name, it was possible to generate another dummy variable accounting for the character of chain hotels. This variable is 1 if the hotel belongs to a hotel chain and 0 otherwise. Finally, we counted the number of additional benefits provided by the respective special offer such as free parking, free usage of Internet access or spa, a bottle of water or free fruits at arrival. As breakfast was included in each and every special offer, we only counted additional benefits here. Therefore, our introducing example would have earned four points. Another two dummy variables were introduced to account for the location of the hotels. One represents the location within a major city with more than 100 000 inhabitants, the other one for a location within a metropolitan area with more than 500 000 inhabitants. Data based on Internet Inquiry

In addition to the data directly observable in the special deals, we employed an intensive Internet inquiry to find some more detailed information about the hotel. First of all, we looked for the average room size as an indicator of quality. Hereby, we careful looked at accordance of categories. Hence, if the special offer included a junior suite, we also looked for the average size of this junior suite at the website. We were able to gather this information from 64 hotels. Similarly, we looked for the total number of rooms in the hotels accounting for their capacities. 88 hotels out of our data set offer this information on their Internet site. To account for the geographic distribution along Germany, we took into consideration the postal code of each hotel. As these codes follow a specific logic from north to south and from east to west, this is a good indicator of geography. Finally, we were interested in some more detailed information concerning the specific geographic situation. Taken the example above, there is a huge difference if the hotel is located in the centre of Bremen or in the suburbs. Neither the postal code nor our dummy variables concerning being part of a major city or metropolis nor any other information from the special offer is able to account for this circumstance. Hence, we needed to construct a respective measurement. Therefore, we calculated the distance by car from the hotel to the main station of the respective city. To ensure highest quality data, we always followed the same request: We typed in the hotel's address and calculated the route to the main train

station of the respective city. The first results from Google's Maps in kilometres were taken to deny any errors due to the usage of different motorways. Similarly, some hotel's unique selling proposition is not city-centred. Instead, these hotels focus on other points of interest (POI) such as airports or recreation areas. Therefore we calculated the distance towards these specific POIs in a similar way. We were able to identify 82 POIs. Data taken from Mystery Calls

To really understand a hotel manager's intention behind participating in such a special offer, we called the hotels to find out more. However, as German managers are typically very conservative in communicating business-related details to universities for research reasons, we followed another concept: Mystery calls. For collecting unbiased and true information we designed a unique way to gather this information. We called each hotel by telling them that we, unfortunately, missed the five day deadline of the deal and kindly asked for the same or another discount. As an additional option we asked if the hotel is planning a similar special offer for the future months as we indicated to be very flexible concerning the date of our stay. During the resulting small talk about the hotel and such special offers in general, we tried to find out about the general satisfaction of the respective employee with these deals. Therefore, we recorded the perceived satisfaction score on a scale from 1 to 10, evaluated from the interviewer. Descriptive Analysis and Correlations

Table 1 summarizes our variables concerning their minimum and maximum value, their mean and standard error, their standard deviation and their skewness and kurtosis including the respective standard errors.


Table 2: Descriptive Analysis of Data

Min Max M SE SD SK SE K SE

(1) Discount 50 62 51,8 0,3 2,8 2,0 0,2 3,7 0,5(2) Discount above 50% 0 1 0,5 0,0 0,5 -0,2 0,2 -2,0 0,5

(3) Offering Price 29 129 51,2 1,5 15,5 1,8 0,2 6,4 0,5(4) Stars 3 5 3,7 0,1 0,5 -0,3 0,2 -0,8 0,5(5) Room Size 10 65 24,6 1,0 8,2 2,3 0,3 8,9 0,6(6) Hotel Chain Industry 0 1 0,7 0,1 0,5 -0,9 0,3 -1,2 0,6(7) Additional Benefits 1 9 4,0 0,2 1,8 0,6 0,2 0,0 0,5(8) Capacity 25 360 120,7 7,6 71,7 1,2 0,3 1,0 0,5(9) Major City 0 1 0,7 0,0 0,4 -1,0 0,3 -0,9 0,5

(10) Metropolis 0 1 0,6 0,1 0,5 -0,4 0,3 -1,9 0,5(11) Postcode n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0,0 0,2 -1,3 0,5(12) Distance Main Station 0 78 14,0 1,7 16,6 1,7 0,2 2,7 0,5(13) Distance POI 0 418 23,3 5,4 49,2 6,6 0,3 52,2 0,5

Notes:

SD = Standard Deviation; SK = Skewness; K = Kurtosis.

Dependent Variables

Independent Variables

Min = Minimum; Max = Maximum; M = Mean; SE = Standard Error

First results for the interrelation of these variables can be found when looking at their correlation coefficients as illustrated in Table 2. For reasons of convenience, significant correlation coefficients are marked in bold. Interestingly, the respective discount correlates with the number of stars (positive), the belonging to a hotel chain (negative), the number of additional benefits (positive) and the dummy variables for major cities and metropolises (both negative) on a significant level. Obviously, some variables account for the same phenomenon inducing the problem of multi-collinearity in regression models.

Table 3: Correlation Coefficients

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13)

(1) Discount 1 0,91** -0,02 0,21* 0,03 -0,27* 0,28** 0,01 -0,38** -0,39** 0,01 0,13 0,21(2) Discount above 50% 0,82** 1 0,00 0,25* 0,01 -0,23* 0,28** 0,01 -0,29** -0,35** 0,11 0,13 0,18

(3) Offering Price -0,02 0,00 1 0,32** 0,23 -0,38** 0,24* -0,22* -0,16 -0,33** 0,04 0,21* 0,06(4) Stars 0,18* 0,24* 0,27** 1 0,32* -0,05 0,18 0,44** -0,21* -0,18 -0,08 0,15 0,12(5) Room Size 0,02 0,01 0,17 0,26* 1 0,23 0,27* 0,20 -0,22 -0,14 -0,21 0,08 -0,06(6) Hotel Chain Industry -0,24* -0,23 -0,32** -0,05 0,20 1 -0,31** 0,48** 0,26* 0,32* 0,02 -0,07 -0,20(7) Additional Benefits 0,22** 0,25** 0,18* 0,15 0,19* -0,27** 1 -0,15 -0,48** -0,51** 0,04 0,22* 0,10(8) Capacity 0,01 0,00 -0,15 0,34** 0,14 0,40** -0,11 1 0,07 0,18 0,06 -0,01 -0,08(9) Major City -0,34** -0,29** -0,14 -0,21* -0,19 0,26* -0,43** 0,06 1 0,82** -0,02 -0,07 -0,16

(10) Metropolis -0,35** -0,35** -0,28** -0,17 -0,12 0,32* -0,45** 0,15 0,82** 1 -0,05 -0,13 -0,28*(11) Postcode 0,00 0,09 0,03 -0,06 -0,14 0,01 0,03 0,04 -0,02 -0,04 1 -0,12 0,06(12) Distance Main Station 0,09 0,11 0,14 0,11 0,06 -0,06 0,17* -0,01 -0,06 -0,11 -0,08 1 0,39**(13) Distance POI 0,15 0,15 0,04 0,10 -0,04 -0,16 0,07 -0,06 -0,13 -0,23* 0,03 0,27** 1

Notes:

Independent Variables

Dependent Variables

Below diagonal Kendall-Tau-b; above diagonal Spearman-Rho. ** p < .01; * p < .05; two-tailed.

Statistical Results To illuminate the effects of each variable on the absolute discount, eleven regression models were run. Table 3 presents the results of these analyses whereby significant coefficients are marked in bold. Again, the belonging to a hotel chain (negative), the number of additional benefits (positive) and the dummy variables for major cities and metropolises (both negative) show significant results.

Table 4: Results of Linear Regressions

Independent VariablesOffering Price -0,03 0,73Stars 0,08 0,43Room Size -0,06 0,64Hotel Chain Industry -0,21 0,08Additional Benefits 0,24 0,01Capacity -0,06 0,58Major City -0,30 0,00Metropolis -0,24 0,04Postcode -0,03 0,79Distance Main Station 0,10 0,30Distance POI 0,06 0,58StatisticsAdjusted R SquareSig. Change in FNotes:

0,050,010,73 0,43

0,00 0,00 0,000,64

Dependent Variable: Discount (Linear Regression)

The first black scores indicate the respective values for Beta; the second grey scores indicate the respective values for significance.

0,000,30

0,000,58

0,040,04

0,000,79

0,000,58

0,080,00

0,030,08

Following a similar procedure, Table 4 shows the results of logistic regressions on the dummy variable indicating a discount higher as 50%. Additionally to the results


presented above, the number of stars (positive) and our two distance measurements (both positive) become significant.

Table 5: Results of Logistic Regressions

Independent VariablesOffering Price 0,00 0,99Stars 0,97 0,02Room Size -0,03 0,34Hotel Chain Industry -1,12 0,05Additional Benefits 0,38 0,00Capacity 0,00 0,76Major City -1,46 0,01Metropolis -1,60 0,00Postcode 0,00 0,20Distance Main Station 0,03 0,07Distance POI 0,02 0,10StatisticsCox & Snell R-QuadratNagelkerkes R-QuadratNotes:

Dependent Variable: Discount above 50% (Logistic Regression)

0,00 0,06 0,02 0,05 0,10 0,00 0,09 0,12 0,02 0,04 0,050,00 0,08 0,02 0,07 0,13 0,00 0,11 0,16 0,02 0,05 0,07

The first black scores indicate the respective values for B; the second grey scores indicate the respective values for significance.

Detailed results are available upon request. To better interpret the results of these two different regression analyses, Table 5 presents a synopsis illustrating these results in a condensed way. Therefore, the results are categorized in three parts. First, variables without significant results neither within linear nor within logistic regressions are presented. Second, robust significant variables in both analyses are shown. Third, mixed significant variables are illustrated.

Table 6: Overview of both Regression Analyses

Non-Significant VariablesOffering Price -0,03 0,73 0,00 0,99Room Size -0,06 0,64 -0,03 0,34Capacity -0,06 0,58 0,00 0,76Postcode -0,03 0,79 0,00 0,20Robust Significant VariablesHotel Chain Industry -0,21 0,08 -1,12 0,05Additional Benefits 0,24 0,01 0,38 0,00Major City -0,30 0,00 -1,46 0,01Metropolis -0,24 0,04 -1,60 0,00Mixed Significant VariablesStars 0,08 0,43 0,97 0,02Distance Main Station 0,10 0,30 0,03 0,07Distance POI 0,06 0,58 0,02 0,10Notes:

The second two scores represents the results of logistic regressions.

Synopsis of Linear and Logistic Regressions

Detailed results are available upon request.

The first two scores represents the results of linear regressions.

conclusionS This study was set out to broadening our understanding of special offers in two dimensions. First, we looked at antecedents, i.e., at variables that are able to explain the nature of offered discounts. Second, we regard consequences of participating in such special offers from the perspective of hotel managers. As such, our results contribute to our understanding of the phenomenon of special offers in the German hotel market. On the one hand, our statistical results show some solid insignificant determinants. First, the price of each offering does not affect the discount. This is somewhat surprising as one could have argued that higher prices will lead to higher discounts to attract customers. Second, the average room size does not affect the discount. Therefore, a suspicion that smaller rooms will lead to higher discounts does not find support. The same holds true for the overall capacities as larger hotels could be seen as potential suppliers of higher discounts. Finally, we did not find any effect on geographic distribution along Germany. More interesting, the analyses found some important significant results. First, belonging to a hotel chain is an important determinant on special offers' discounts in two dimensions. Although hotel chains participate in these offers (51 offers), they typically do not offer more than 50% discount, i.e., the minimum required discount to benefits from HRS product. Especially the result of the logistic regression shows that hotel chains prevent higher discounts. Second, the number of additional benefits positively influences the discount. One explanation here could be that hotels with lower attractiveness need to offer more benefits and a high discount together in order to attract more people. Third, both belonging to a city or a


metropolitan area decreases the respective discount. As hotels in such an area typically show a higher average bed occupancy rate, this result is in accordance with what we expected. Finally, our analyses also offer some mixed significant results. While the number of stars and our distance measurements do not affect the absolute discount, there is an effect concerning our dummy variable. As such, the higher the number of stars, the higher the probability of a discount higher than 50%. The same holds true for our two distance measurements: The higher the distance to the main station or another point of interest, the higher the probability of a discount higher than 50%. On the other hand, our mystery calls indicated that 35 hotels also propose a special offer after the official booking deadline when mentioning the HRS Top Deal (M=13%; SD=15%; max=51%). While the perceived satisfaction of participating hotels was 5.8 (SD=2.3), 30 hotels indicated to proceed in offering such special offers, whereby only five hotels clearly denied. This indicates a high general satisfaction with such special offers. REFERENCES HRS (2014a), HRS at a glance, taken from

http://www.hrs.com/web3/showCmsPage.do?clientId=ZW5fVVNfTkVYVA--&cid=62-2&pageId=standard-01841 on 29th of May 2014.

HRS (2014b), Bremen like a fairytale, Special Offer at HRS, screenshot taken from http://www.hrs.com/deals/deal/l/en/d/1652/pos/5/ on 29th of May 2014.

HRS (2014b), This is how HRS Deals works, taken from http://www.hrs.com/deals/how-to/?l=en on 29th of May 2014.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am supremely grateful to all students of my first semester class on "Qualitative and Quantitative Research" at SRH Hochschule Berlin – The International Management University at our Campus Dresden. These students focus on the program "International Hotel Management". Therefore, the students collected and organized the data used for subsequent analyses reported in that paper. Without the help of my students as part of my lecture this project would not have been possible.

The Impact of Digital Crisis Communication

Messages at Greece’s Touristic Reputation

MARGARITA KEFALAKI

Communication Management, Hellenic Open University, Parodos Aristotelous 18, 26 335, Patra, Greece

DIMITRIS LALOUMIS

Assistant Professor of Hospitality Management, Dept. of Business Administration, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Greece


ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of digital communication messages about the Greek economic crisis on Greece’s reputation. How much has this kind of messages impacted Greece’s tourism industry? Can such messages restore Greece’s reputation? Content analysis was used to evaluate publicly available social media messages posted on an international online newspaper “The Telegraph”. We took into account articles that had to do with the Greek economic crises, published from January 2014 to May 2014. Additionally, we examined articles presented on international media, selected by a site referring to the Greek crisis (www.greekcrisis.net), published from March 22nd to April 24th 2014. These articles came from six (6) different international sources: ‘Wall Street Journal’, ‘Bloomberg’, ‘Reuters’, ‘Financial Times’, ‘Economist’ and ‘AEIdeas’. In total, sixteen (16) articles from the particular source were judged adequate to be taken into consideration for the purposes of this research. The main general conclusion coming from our research is that people outside Greece have nowadays a positive attitude towards the Greek crisis problem and the efforts of the country to find a solution. Actually most of the internet users, that are also the potential country’s tourist, seem to little by little appreciate that we are talking about a global economic crisis that has a greater impact on south European countries, and most importantly Greece. Nevertheless, even if Greece’s reputation is being restored, there is much to do to ameliorate the situation, a brand image might help. Key Words: Crisis communication, Social media, Tourism industry, Interculturality INTRODUCTION

Crisis is defined as an unpredictable event that threatens stakeholders and can generate negative outcomes that might impact an organization's performance and reputation (Coombs, 2007). Crisis communication is a rapidly developing field of research. The focus of crisis communication research is how communication is used in attempts to manage information and meaning during a crisis (Coombs, 2009; Coombs and Holladay, 2014). Crisis communication messages are mainly designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing such a challenge to its reputation. Researchers in the past have focused on the messages sent by the crisis managers (Lee, 2004), but also on people affected or interested by the crisis reactions (Coombs and Holladay, 2014, 2006, 1996; Jin and Pang, 2010; Jin and Cameron, 2007).

The attended effects of crisis communication messages are generally to minimize the reputation damage that a crisis situation might cause. Nevertheless, speaking about a global economic crisis and digital media that can include different voices, things might be different. Digital media can either damage or restore the country’s reputation.

The Greek economic crisis is part of the Eurozone and the global economic crisis. It is said to have been directly caused by a combination of structural weaknesses of the Greek economy along with a decade long pre-existence of overly high structural deficits and debt-to-GDP levels on public accounts (Wikipedia, 2014). Austerity measures, privatization of government assets, implementation of outlined structural reforms, are some of the conditions for the bailout loan that was given to Greece. This no stable condition has caused great problems to Greece’s reputation and less people started to visit Greece. In June 2012 and a few months before, the international press mounted a negative campaign against Greece. Tourists were actually afraid to visit a turbulent country, when the media focused on protests around the central square of Athens, Syntagma square. Greece seemed to accept quite passively that it could not solve its problems by itself at the time. More precisely, it didn’t try to invest in its critical role in global politics (its location in a complex geographical zone including the Balkans, the Black Sea region, the Mediterranean and the Middle East). Tourism, as long as with other industries, suffered the bad crisis consequences. Euro, with its high rate, was and continuous to be an additional disadvantage to persuade tourists visit the country. The question of the digital media impact on potential tourists’ views was refined into two (2) research questions:

RQ1. What is the public view (positive – negative comments) about Greece nowadays, after almost 6 years of obvious crisis effects?

RQ2. Do these viewpoints have an impact on the country’s reputation? Methodology

We have chosen to study the viewpoint of people living outside Greece with the help of social media. Social media development has permitted many opportunities for every community to communicate about the crisis and other crisis-related news. Types of social media include social networking sites, discussion boards, blogs, content sharing sites, and micro-blogs. Social media allow more actors to become ‘involved’, which means become information-providers, critics, or supporters, in a crisis situation and take the role of a crisis communicator (Coombs and Holladay, 2014). We have chosen to examine digital crisis communication messages expressed by people and media outside Greece. People expressing their point of view might have already visited Greece in the past or/and might visit it in the future; in either way for the purposes of this research they are considered potential future tourists. We have chosen content analysis to evaluate publicly available social media messages posted on an international online newspaper “The Telegraph” (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/), taking into account articles published from January 2014 to May 2014 that have to do with the Greek economic crises. As we know, qualitative research is known as a justifiable and legitimate means of gathering information for additional insights and theory development (Burgess, 1984; Bryman, 1988; Hammersley 1992, and Silverman, 1993). Via this multi-vocal approach, we expected to get different perceptions and


reactions about the Greek economic crisis, so to understand the nowadays perception of Greece’s possible tourists (people living outside Greece). People responding to a particular newspaper article can be recognised as blog users (those who read and respond to blog posts). We examine public published posts by blog users, as reactions to digital journals articles about the Greek crisis. These people can be a valuable source of information to understand how people react to a crisis situation (positively or negatively) (Kent, 2005). Additionally, blog users tend to be homogenous in their interest for the blog topic and supportive. By examining their posts we can have an idea of how to create a crisis messages response strategy (Coombs & Holladay, 2014). The postings on online news outlets can attract a more diverse set of people. Readers post their point of view to the online story and create a forum to discuss the article and the situation proposed by it. This is how we can understand peoples’ reaction to different situations. Different social media channels are one method of distinguishing sub-arenas. Each social media channel establishes boundaries and can be treated as a sub-arena (Coombs and Holladay, 2014; Coombs et al., 2013). Additionally, from the perspective of the rhetorical arena32 approach, publics that communicate during crises should be considered crisis communicators as well (Coombs and Holladay, 2014). As Coombs and Holladay (2014) claims, from the moment that we accept that social media comments created by people about an event have the potential to impact this event, we should consider how publics are using social media to create their own crisis messages and to respond to “official” crisis communication efforts. This is why crisis managers should use the feedback provided by social media comments to refine their crisis messages in specific sub-arenas. Our sample included articles that had strictly to do with the Greek economic crisis. Although we found many articles about Greek neo-fascist party “Golden Dawn’ and the recent story (February 2014) with a little girl that was stolen and found at a Greek Roma camp, events that had certainly a great impact to the Greek touristic market, analyzing such stories was not in the purposes of this paper. We have taken into consideration the articles date, title, subtitle, its photo comments, but most importantly the readers’ comments. We have examined 164 comments in total, coming from 5 different articles, with the following dates: 10 Apr 2014, 08 Mar 2014, 03 Feb 2014, 22 Jan 2014 and 02 Jan 2014. The comments were rated in three (3) categories: favourable (positive), unfavourable (negative), or neutral. Favourable comments were in principle positive/ supportive about the Greek situation. Unfavourable comments were critical about the way Greece and Greeks have treated the economic crisis and the reactions before the actual crisis. Neutral comments are either judged out of the subject, or they are giving very general views or posing questions to other blog users. The favourable comments of the articles were 92 (56%), the unfavourable 43 (26%) and the neutral 29 (17,6%) (table 1) .

32 The rhetorical arena is conceptualized by Coombs and Holladay (2014), as a set of sub-arenas because there are multiple places where people can discuss a crisis event. The capacity of social media to fragment media use provides a mechanism to define the boundaries of sub-arenas

Table 7 separation of the article comments in positive, negative and neutral.

Online newspaper “The Telegraph”

Favourable comments

Unfavourable comments

Neutral comments

92 (56%) 43 (26%) 29 (17,6%) Total of comments 164 It would be also interesting to take a look at the titles, subtitles of the particular articles (table 2).

Table 2 Article titles’ from January 2014 to May 2014 concerning the Greek economic crises from the international online newspaper “The Telegraph”.

Date Title Subtitle 10 Apr 2014 Greece ends exile with

€3bn bond sale Interest rate of 4.95pc shows high demand for Greek debt, despite country still being mired in mass unemployment and deflation

08 Mar 2014 Greece to miss deadline for rescue loan deal

Capitalisation of country's banks is key issue for European Union and International Monetary Fund officials

03 Feb 2014 Eurozone paves way for third Greek bail-out Leaked German finance ministry paper estimates

Greece needs a further €10-20bn to service its debts

22 Jan 2014 Greece high court reverses troika-imposed wage cuts

Council of State rules that pay cuts on police and armed forces workers were unconstitutional, ordering that they be reimbursed in full

02 Jan 2014 Can Greece repair its reputation? Is Greece, the country that nearly brought Europe to

its knees, fit to take over the EU presidency?

As we can make out, judging by the article and its title and subtitle, they refer to the country’s actual condition (reputation, unemployment, deflation). Despite the fact that the situation still remains crucial, digital media ‘designs’ a Greece that finally makes positive efforts towards its problems solutions. This seems also positive for the country’s tourism industry. The 10th of June 2013, Dimitris Avramopoulos, Greece’s foreign minister, during an interview on CNN, claimed that the crisis has helped the country as it “has put as in front of our responsibilities”. Even if, “we still have a long way to run, we are optimistic for the future”. “It’s on the track again” restructuring the administration, encouraging investments, tackling bureaucracy’... Event if Greek people have not


really seen this kind of positive changes in their everyday lives, the outcome for tourists and investments remains positive. Our next attempt to examine the internet users’ view on the economic crisis is the observation of sixteen (16) articles presented on international media, selected by a site referring to the Greek Crisis www.greekcrisis.net. The articles were dated from March, 22 to April, 24 2014, coming from six (6) different international sources: ‘Wall Street Journal’, ‘Bloomberg’, ‘Reuters’, ‘Financial Times’, ‘Economist’ and ‘AEIdeas’. In table 3 we can see the source, the date and the articles title.

Table 3 Article titles and dates, coming from ‘Wall Street Journal’, ‘Bloomberg’, ‘Reuters’, ‘Financial Times’, ‘Economist’ and ‘AEIdeas’.

Date /Journal Title 1 April 24, 2014/ Bloomberg Athens Lacking Only Elgin as Windows

Erase Crisis 2 April 23, 2014/ Wall Street

Journal EU Confirms Greece Beat Its Budget Targets in 2013

3 April 16, 2014/ Reuters Greece to stabilise this year, but recovery road will be long

4 April 13, 2014/ Wall Street Journal

The Tide Is Turning for Greece—and the Euro Zone

5 April 13, 2014/ Financial Times This could be the moment for Greece to default


For Bond Investors, Greece Is The Word

7 April 14, 2014/ Economist Greece’s return to the markets: The prodigal son

8 April 11, 2014/ AEIdeas Is Greece really out of the woods? April 10, 2014/ Wall Street

Journal Trouble Brews for Greece Despite Good News on Bond Sale


Greece Triumphs in Bond Odyssey


Greece Gets Strong Demand for Bond

1 April 9, 2014/Wall Street Journal

Greece to Issue First Long-Term Bond Since Bailout

1 April 8, 2014/ Reuters Greek rebound is astonishing 1 April 4, 2014/ Wall Street

Journal Greece Nears Bond-Market Resurrection

1 March 23, 2014/ Wall Street Journal

Greece Able to Call Its Own Tune

1 March 22, 2014/ Wall Street Journal

For Greek Workers, a Dreaded Day Arrives

As we can understand only by taking a look at the articles titles, they are mostly referring to Greece’s crises stabilisation - amelioration. We can then make out that as the time goes by there is a more positive climate concerning the Greek crisis that is more and more considered a global phenomenon that couldn’t be avoided and that Greeks are doing their best to ameliorate the crucial situation. Nevertheless, even if Greece’s reputation is being restored, there is much to do to ameliorate it, and a brand image might help to restore Greece’s reputation. As Markessinis A. (n.d.) claims, we do need to brand Greece. Before the counties Olympic Games in 2004, he wrote that the country must have a brand to communicate to the world audience Greece’s characteristic values that make up its essence. The louder and clearer this message is broadcasted, the better Greece would emerge among the nations. Branding process for Greece should improve Greece’s damaged image abroad and boost the National self-esteem as well. Conclusions The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the impact of digital communication messages about the Greek economic crisis on Greece’s reputation. By the evaluation (content analysis) of publicly available social media messages posted on an international online newspaper “The Telegraph” published from March 22nd to April 24th 2014 and articles presented on international media about the Greek economic crises (published on ‘Wall Street Journal’, ‘Bloomberg’, ‘Reuters’, ‘Financial Times’, ‘Economist’ and ‘AEIdeas’), from January 2014 to May 2014, we can make out that any kind of information proposed by the digital media has a great impact on Greece’s tourism industry. The main conclusion is that nowadays, people outside Greece have a positive attitude towards the Greek crisis problem and the efforts of the country to find a solution. Nevertheless, even if Greece’s reputation is being restored, there is much to do to ameliorate it, and a brand image might help to restore it. Some of the research limitations/Implications we have to refer to, is that there were only two communication channels were analyzed, one online journal outside Greece and an internet site containing articles of ‘Wall Street Journal’, ‘Bloomberg’, ‘Reuters’, ‘Financial Times’, ‘Economist’ and ‘AEIdeas’. Judging by the impact of social media on crisis situations, more research of this kind should be done in the future by crisis communicators to evaluate and respond in a crisis situation. Social media should always be taken into consideration, as each and every individual using them might be a potential crisis communicator.


REFERENCES

Bryman, A. (1988), Doing research in organizations. London: Longman.

Burgess, R. G. (1984), In the field: An introduction to field research. London: Allen and Unwin.

Coombs, W.T. & Holladay, S.J. (1996), “Communication and attributions in a crisis: an experimental study of crisis communication”, Journal of Public Relations Research, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 279-295.

Coombs, W. T. (2007), Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding, Los Angeles: Sage

Coombs, W.T. & Holladay, S.J. (2006), “Halo or reputational capital: reputation and crisis management”, Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 123-137.

Coombs W. T. & Holladay Sherry J. (2014), How publics react to crisis communication efforts Comparing crisis response reactions across sub-arenas, Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp.40-57

Coombs, W.T., Holladay, S.J., Frandsen, F. & Johansen, W. (2013), “Livestrong to livewrong: analyzing and conceptualizing sub-arenas of crisis communication in the Lance Armstrong doping crisis”, paper presented at 16th International Public Relations Research Conference, Miami, FL, March 9.

Hammersley, M. (1992), Reading ethnographic research: A critical guide. London: Longman.

Lee, B.K. (2004), “Audience-oriented approach to crisis communication: a study of Hong Kong consumers’ evaluations of an organizational crisis”, Communication Research, Vol. 31 No. 5, pp. 600-618.

Markessinis A. (n.d.), The need of branding Greece, In http://brandinggreece.com/need-branding-greece/, consulted 18/5/2014

Jin, Y. and Cameron, G.T. (2007), “The effects of threat type and duration on

public relations practitioner’s cognitive, affective, and cognitive responses to crisis situations”, Journal of Public Relations Research, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 255-281.

Jin, Y. & Pang, A. (2010), “Future directions of crisis communication research: emotions in crisis – the next frontier”. In Coombs, W.T. and Holladay, S.J. (Eds), Handbook of Crisis Communication, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA, pp. 677-682.

Joanne E. H., Ronald E. D. & David P. H. (2005), Crisis Response Communication Challenges: Building Theory From Qualitative Data, Journal of Business Communication 2005 42: 112

Silvermann, D. (1993), Interpreting qualitative data: Methods for analyzing talk, text and interaction. London: Sage.

Online newspaper “The Telegraph”, In http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/, consulted in April 2014.

-James Titcomb (10 Apr 2014), Greece ends exile with €3bn bond sale

-Anna White (08 Mar 2014), Enterprise and property correspondent. Greece to miss deadline for rescue loan deal -Bruno Waterfield (03 Feb 2014), Eurozone paves way for third

Greek bail-out -Denise Roland (22 Jan 2014), Greece high court reverses troika-

imposed wage cuts, Reuters -Colin Freeman (02 Jan 2014), Can Greece repair its reputation?

Greekcrisis.net, Articles published on www.greekcrisis.net from March, 22 to April, 24 2014, consulted 6 & 7 Mai 2014.

-April 24, 2014/Bloomberg, Athens Lacking Only Elgin as Windows Erase Crisis

-April 23, 2014/Wall Street Journal, EU Confirms Greece Beat Its Budget Targets in 2013 -April 16, 2014/ Reuters, Greece to stabilise this year, but recovery

road will be long -April 13, 2014/ Wall Street Journal, The Tide Is Turning for

Greece—and the Euro Zone -April 13, 2014/ Financial Times, This could be the moment for

Greece to default -April 10, 2014/ Wall Street Journal, For Bond Investors, Greece Is

The Word -April 14, 2014/ Economist, Greece’s return to the markets: The

prodigal son -April 11, 2014/ AEIdeas, Is Greece really out of the woods? -April 10, 2014/ Wall Street Journal, Trouble Brews for Greece Despite Good News on Bond Sale -April 10, 2014/ Wall Street Journal, Greece Triumphs in Bond Odyssey -April 10, 2014/ Wall Street Journal, Greece Gets Strong Demand for Bond -April 9, 2014/Wall Street Journal, Greece to Issue First Long-Term Bond Since Bailout -April 8, 2014/ Reuters, Greek rebound is astonishing


-April 4, 2014/ Wall Street Journal, Greece Nears Bond-Market Resurrection -March 23, 2014/ Wall Street Journal, Greece Able to Call Its Own Tune -March 22, 2014/ Wall Street Journal, For Greek Workers, a Dreaded Day Arrives

Wikipedia (n.d.), Greek government-debt crisis, In http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_government-debt_crisis (consulted 6/5/2014)

Micro‐credit Program and Women

Entrepreneurship of Grameen Bank in

Bangladesh

DR. MD. SHAH ALAM

Professor and Head, Department of Business Administration, University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh


Abstract

The creation and development of micro-credit programs are attributed to be an important aspect of a developing country like Bangladesh. The paper aims at examining the performance of women entrepreneurs under micro-credit program of Grameen Bank. Primary & secondary sources of data are used in conducting the study. The primary data have been collected through structured questionnaire of 85 women entrepreneurs from five branches of GB under Rajshahi Zone namely Banesher, Damkura , Naohata, Yusufpur & Basudebpur. The paper discussed on the basic characteristics of micro-credit System (MCS) and its implementation. During analysis it is clarified that there are two systems for micro-credit - Grameen Generalized System (GGS) and Grameen Classic System (GCS). GGS has positive contribution to the performance of women entrepreneurs. Persons working under the system feel proud to be associated with GB and get more importance in the family for taking decisions about income & expenditure. GGS provides opportunities for the respondents in reducing their dependency on the family income. Involvement of the respondents with GB is also considered to be an effective tool for their family survival. The present capital of the respondent’s business has gradually increased due to effective business activities. The respondents try to save more money as GB declares dividend each year the inception of the GGS. Lastly the present study has outlined some modest possible suggestions for the betterment of the present system on the basis of findings derived from the study.

Key Words Grameen Bank, Grameen Classic System, Grameen Generalized System, Dividend, Women entrepreneurs

Introduction

The development of women entrepreneurship has become a buzz word in modern world. Women constitute around half of the total world population. Bangladesh is a developing country where about160 million people are living. Present unemployment rate is 40% and population growth rate is 2.01% posing a great threat to the economic development of the country (Rahman, 1979). Women constitute nearly 50 % of the total population in Bangladesh also. About 92% of women live in rural areas. They are illiterate, ill fed & socially repressed. Urban women comprise only 8% of the total female population (Khan, 2007). Therefore, without development of women entrepreneurship in rural areas, the real development of the country is almost impossible. Empowerment of poor women with the right tools can play a pivotal role in the economic development of Bangladesh. But women entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh is at a very preliminary stage.

Developing women entrepreneurship may be the one of the motivational factors for economic development of the country. Historically, the society of Bangladesh is male dominated. Women have to abide by cultural & religious practices. They are restricted to go outside home. . A number of governmental & non-governmental organizations have taken some steps for the development of women as a precondition for sustained economic & social progress of the country. But women involved in business face financial crisis severely. The provision of security for getting credit from formal banking is considered to be a major hindrance for the women entrepreneur (Begum, 1992). So, there is a need for special program for the development of rural women entrepreneurship. Micro credit may be the motivational force for the empowerment of women in a society where women have to struggle against repression social & economic conditions. Economic growth & political democracy cannot be achieved fully unless half of the female participate in economic activities along with their male partners (Noble prize. org, 2006).

GB has already introduced two systems for encouraging women entrepreneurship in rural areas. The systems are: Grameen Classic System (GCS) and Grameen Generalized System (GGS) introduced in August 2002. GGS has some new features over GCS which have an important bearing on women empowerment in rural areas of Bangladesh.

Literature Review Literature review is intended to find out the research gap of a study. With a view to indentifying the research gap, a number of related literatures have been reviewed. The review of literatures is shown below: There are many studies conducted mainly on women’s financial, social, economic performance, decision making ability and empowerment (Nabi,1993; Mizanur,1999; Ainon,N.M. 1992; Hasna,H.,2006; Goett, et al.,1996; Montgomery, et. Al., 1996; Ackerly, 1995; Amin & Pebly, 1994; Hasemi et. al. 1996, Naved, 1994; Zaman, 1999, Acharya, 1994).Some other studies have been conducted on GB performance & sustainability, impact of GB’S credit to women entreprenuers (Shahidur, 1995; Osmani, 1998). Besides, some researchers have also pointed out the impacts of governmental & non-governmental programs, procedural problems of bank financing for the development of women (Afrin, 2007; Saha, 1995). From the above mentioned literature review, it is also found that there has not been any study conducted on the GGS and GCS. All the studies have been conducted on the basis of Grameen Classic System. Considering the clue from the literature review, the present study titled “ Micro Credit Program and Women Entrepreneurship of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh” has been undertaken.

Objectives of the study

The objectives of the study inter alia are as follows:

1. To understand the basic characteristics of Grameen Generalized System. 2. To identify the basic characteristics of Grameen Classic System;


3. To point out the impact of Grameen Generalized System and Grameen Classic System for the development of women entrepreneurship;

4. To examine the differences between Grameen Generalized System and Grameen Classic System for the development of women entrepreneurship.

5. To outline the modest possible suggestions on the major findings for the development of women entrepreneurship.

Methodology of the study

Sources of data Both primary and secondary data are used in conducting the study. Primary data are collected through survey method and interview of the concerned persons viz., GB officials and selected women entrepreneurs of the study. Two sets of questionnaire are prepared for the above two concerned groups. The secondary data are collected through research articles, journals, magazines, textbooks, newspapers, Grameen Bank Publications; official papers of the sampled branches and other various published and unpublished research materials on the issue. Selection of the sample In the study, the sample has been selected with great care for generalization of results. The study covers only Rajshahi Zone in Bangladesh. A total of five branches of GB namely Baneshar, Damkura , Naohata, Yusufpur and Basudebpur have been purposively selected because of easy access of the researcher to the branches. Selection of the respondents: There are seven sectors viz., manufacturing, trading, services, livestock & fisheries, agriculture and forestry, shop keeping and peddling etc. in GB on the basis of which women can borrow loan. The study has selected respondents from the trading sector only through systematic random sampling. A total of 257 borrowers who have been working with GB for at least five years GB have been identified for the study. Out of the borrowers, 85 respondents have been taken as a sample in conducting the study.

Grameen Generalized System (GGS) and its characteristics As mentioned earlier that GB has introduced GGS for better empowerment of women entrepreneurship in the rural areas of Bangladesh. The main characteristics of GGS are described below:

i. Basically, borrowers may take prime loan, which is also called “basic loan” for two years. If problem arises in case of repayment of loan, it may be extended up to 3 years.

ii. The complexities in record keeping, maintaining an account for various types of loans have been removed by merging all the loans

into a single loan like basic loan. This will help to reduce the stationary cost. The field staff has also been able to devote more time for development work & supervision in the field.

iii. The borrowers can get a loan for the duration of 3, 6, 9, or 12 months or more up to 3-year as per their need.

iv. There is a bridge loan system for borrowers where loan ceiling is fixed according to her savings deposit. If a borrower needs additional money at any time she can take a bridge loan for 3 to 6 months.

v. There are hard & first rules for the increase & decrease of loan size. The loan size of an individual borrower depends on the repayment & attendance record. Increase of loan ceiling is treated like a reward for good performance & lowering of ceiling is like “punishment” for poor performance. This is done for the encouragement of the borrowers to go forward.

vi. Installment size is flexible. It may be of varying sizes during the loan period. It depends on the ability of the borrowers.

vii. A borrower can take a fresh loan after every six months. Under the basic loan system a borrower can borrow exactly the same amount without interest paid back during the last six months.

viii. There is loan insurance savings fund. Each family receives Taka 1500. Borrowers are not required to pay any premium for this life insurance.

ix. All GB basic rules do not apply for destitute members.

x. There are no group funds & special savings. GB has different kinds of savings products. It encourages the borrowers to save money in these accounts. As a result of having several kinds of savings, the borrowers will save more and the bank will have reliable sources of funds.

xi. When a borrower comes under a flexible loan, she is no longer treated as a borrower with overdue loan. She becomes a regular borrower.

Grameen Classic System (GCS) and its characteristics

i. GCS followed several types of loan namely General, Seasonal-2, Seasonal-3, Leasing, Family loans, Cattle, & Medium. It created


complexities in record keeping, maintaining an account for various types of loans. The field staff was not able to devote more time for development work and supervision in the field because of the burden of paper work.

ii. Term of loan as always of one year duration.

iii. Installment size was uniform during the loan period.

iv. There was no hard and fast rule for increase & decrease of the size of the loan. A common loan ceiling exits for a branch.

v. There was no opportunity to make lumpy repayments or pay more than the weekly installment.

vi. A fresh loan was not allowed before full repayment of a particular type of loan.

vii. There was no bridge loan system.

viii. There was no provision of flexible loan.

ix. There was no opportunity of insurance for paying off deceased borrower’s liabilities.

x. All GB basic rules applied for all the borrowers.

xi. GCS maintained a group fund account since its inception as a joint savings account. It operated by group chairman and secretary with the consent of all members. Many time borrowers felt it as a problem.

xii. There was no pension fund like Grameen Pension Scheme (GPS).

xiii. There was no encouragement for opening various savings accounts.

xiv. There was no higher education loan for borrower’s children, the struggling members (beggars) loan and business loan for graduate students of Grameen families.

xv. A branch staff got very discouraged if there is any defaulter in his centre.

The profile of the respondents Entrepreneurship cannot be considered an individual phenomenon only and strictly intrinsic value of the personality involved in it (Desh Pande, 1984). In order to measure the characteristics of the sample respondents, the main indicators, such as age profile, marital status, educational level, family structure and intra family decision making ability have been considered more relevant for the purpose of the study. The main characteristics of the respondents are seen in Table 1. Table-1 reveals that the average age of the respondents is 25.47 years. 81.18% of the respondents are staying with husband & only 18.82% respondents are widow. 92.94% of the respondents have nuclear families & only 7.06% have joint families. It is found from the educational level of the respondents that a significant portion of the respondents (54.12%) know signatures only, 24.70% respondents are educated up to primary level & 21.18% respondents are educated up to secondary level. Regarding the intra-family decision making ability to the respondents, it is also found that a major portion of the respondents (69.47%) take any decision through consultation with their family members, only 20% respondents take decisions independently & 10.59% respondents take decisions through rarely consultation with their family members.

Table-1

Profile of the respondents

Variables Items Number Percentage Averages Age group 20-30 years

30-40 years 40-50 years 50-60 years 60-70 years

13 43 23 4 2

15.29% 50.59% 27.06% 4.71% 2.39%

25.47 years

Marital status Staying with husband Widow

69 16

81.18% 18.82%

Family structure

Nuclear Joint

79 6

92.94% 7.06%

Educational level

Signing only Up to primary Up to secondary

46 21 18

54.12% 24.70% 21.18%

Intra-family decision making ability

Independent Always consult Rarely consult

17 59 9

20% 69.47% 10.59%

Source: Field Survey


The performance of the respondents with Grameen Generalized System: GB plays a vital role in the development of women entrepreneurship in rural areas of Bangladesh. Women now comprise 97% of the bank’s borrowers. In the sample area 100% of the respondents are women. An effort has been made to analyze the achievement by the respondents under GGS. For this purpose, five criteria have been chosen, these are as follows:

i. Income and expenditure ii. Income of the respondents as percentage of total family income iii. Increase & growth rate of the total present capital compared to

initial capital iv. Position of savings by the respondents with GB. iv. Dividend

Income has a greater importance in order to understand the contribution of women entrepreneurs in the development of our country’s economy. From Table 2, it is clear that out of 85 respondents, the monthly income of 9(10.59%) is Tk. 3000 to 5000, 55(64.71%) is Tk. 5000 to 11,000 and 21(24.7%) is Tk. 11,000 to above 15,000. The table shows that, the level of expenditure of the respondents is less than their level of income. Their income is greater than their expenditure. It is positive sign to understand the status of poor women in rural areas. About 70 % respondents opined that they get more importance in the family for taking income and expenditure decisions after involvement of income generating activities.

Table-2 Monthly income & expenditure of the sample respondents

Range of income (Thousands of

taka)

Number of freq.

Percentage Range of expenditure

(Thousands of taka)

Number of freq.

Percentage

3000-5000 9 10.59% 2000-4000 28 32.94% 5000-7000 23 27.06% 4000-6000 31 36.47% 7000-9000 14 16.47% 6000-8000 16 18.82% 9000-11000 18 21.18% 8000-10000 7 8.24% 11000-13000 8 9.41% Above10000 3 3,53% 13000-15000 8 9.41% - - - Above 15000 5 5.88% - - - Total= 85 100 85 100


.Income of the respondents as percentage of total family income: GGS has a positive contribution for income generating of the borrowers due to its some opportunities in receiving & paying loan. These opportunities or incentives

measures (like payment of installment as per ability of the borrowers, taking loan after every six months, taking bridge loan, full payment at any time, flexible loan etc) has enabled the sample respondents in increasing their performance & encouraged more women’s entry into entrepreneurial carrier. These opportunities or incentives measures which was lacking under GCS. Table 3 reveals that the respondent’s monthly income as percentage of respondent’s total family income is between 47 to 88%. The table shows that out of 85 respondents; 9 respondents, 23 respondents, 14 respondents & 18 respondents have achieved 47%, 79%, 71% & 88% of their total family income respectively. It is found from the table that the total income of the respondents as percentage of total family income is 77%. It indicates that the income of the respondents fulfils a major portion of their total family income & increases their total family income. It also encourages in reducing the dependency of the respondents on the family. Involvement of women entrepreneurs in income earning activities can also be considered as an effective tool for their family survival. Table 4 shows the increase and growth rate of total present capital compared to initial capital of the sample respondents. The table also clarifies that out of 85 respondents, the present capital of the 16 respondents has gone up taka 96000 & the growth rate is 300%. The present capital of 26 respondents & 22 respondents has increased taka 1807000 & taka 1650000; & their growth rate of present capital compared to initial capital are 1544% & 1000% respectively. The table reveals that the respondent’s total growth rate of the total present capital as compared to initial capital is 874%. It indicates that the respondents are able to utilize their loan money effectively. As a result their present capital of the business has been gradually increased. The table also indicates that it is the result of the improvement trend in the system of GB.

Table-3

Income of the respondents as percentage of total family income Range of respondents income(Thousands of

taka)

Respondent’s total Income

Respondent’s total family

income

Number of freq.

Percentage

3000-5000 36000 77000 9 47% 5000-7000 146000 184000 23 79% 7000-9000 114000 160000 14 71% 9000-11000 186000 214000 18 88% 11000-13000 100000 128000 8 78% 13000-15000 115000 148000 8 78% Above 15000 92000 112500 5 82%

Total= 789000 1024100 85 77% Source: Field Survey

Table 4

Increase & growth rate of the total present capital compared to initial capital


Range of initial capital of the respondents

Initial capital of the

respondents

Present capital of the

respondents

Increase of the present capital

Number Growth rate of present capital compared to initial capital

1000-3000 32000 128000 96000 16 300% 3000-6000 117000 1924000 1807000 26 1544% 6000-9000 165000 1815000 1650000 22 1000%

9000-12000 199500 1330000 1130500 19 567% 12000-15000 27000 70000 43000 2 159%

Total= 540500 5267000 4726500 85 874% Source: Field survey

Savings products Grameen Bank maintained group fund account as a joint savings account & personal savings account under GCS. Many times borrowers felt the group fund as a problem. But GGS encourages the borrowers to open various savings accounts such as loan insurance fund, personal savings & Grameen pension scheme, double benefits in 7 years etc. All the respondents opined that savings products encourage them to join with GB. GB offers 8.5% interest rate for personal savings, 12% interest rate for Grameen personal Savings (GPS). Under Loan Insurance Fund (LIF), if a borrower dies any time, her entire outstanding amount of loan is paid up by the insurance fund. In addition, her family receives back the amount she saved in the loan insurance savings account.

Table 5 Position of savings by the respondents with GB (up to 12.2.10) Personal Savings(PS) Loan Insurance Fund(LIF)

Range of savings ( Thousands of taka)

No. of freq.

Percentage Range of Savings ( Thousands of taka)

No. of freq.

Percentage

Up to 2000 28 32.94 Up to2000 39 45.88% 2000-4000 25 29.42 2000-4000 23 27.06% 4000-6000 16 18.82 4000-6000 17 20% 6000-8000 8 9.41 6000-8000 4 4.70%

8000-10000 2 2.35 8000-10000 1 1.18% 10000-12000 6 7.06 Above 10000 1 1.18%

Total= 85 100 85 100 Source: Field Survey

Table 5 reveals that out of 85 respondents, the personal savings position of 53(62.36%) is up to Tk.4000, 16(18.82%) is in between Tk. 4000 and 6000 & other

respondents save Tk. 6000 to 12000. The table also shows the loan insurance fund of the respondents. It is observed that out of 85 respondents, the amount of fund of 62(72.94%) is up to Tk.4, 000 & 17(20%) is Tk.4000 to 6000. The amount of fund of other respondents is Tk. 6000 and above Tk. 10,000. The respondents opined that it encourages them to join with GB..

Table 6

Position of savings by the respondents with GB (up to 12.2.10) Grameen Pension Scheme(GPS)

Range of savings No. of freq. Percentage Up to 10000 58 68.24% 10000-20000 6 7.06% 20000-30000 8 9.41% 30000-40000 2 2.35% 40000-50000 2 2.35% 50000-60000 3 3.53% 60000-70000 4 4.71% Above 70000 2 2.35% Total= 85 100

Source: Field Survey From Table 6, it is clarified that out of 85 respondents, the amount of savings of 58(68.24%) is up to Tk. 10000. So the savings amount of most of the respondents is up to Tk. 10000 which is the lowest range of savings. Other respondents save Tk. 10,000 to above Tk.70000. All the respondents appreciate these various savings products of GB. A variety of savings products encourages the borrowers for capital formation & increases their status in the society. Dividend: The borrowers are the owner of 96.5% share of GB. So they expect a reasonably satisfactory dividend. There was lacking of dividend under GCS. GB is continually trying to meet this demand under GGS from 2006. From Table 7, it is observed that GB declared 100% divided for 2006. It declared 20% dividend for 2007 & 30% dividend from 2008 to 2009. So declaring of dividends each year greatly inspires the borrowers of GB. It indicates the symbol of better performance of women entrepreneurs.

Table 7 Year-Wise dividend declared by GB

Years Rate of dividend 2006 100% 2007 20% 2008 30% 2009 30%



Without better performance of the borrowers of GB, it is not possible to declare dividend on behalf of GB. GB’s income and investment must be considered in case of giving dividend. The major constraints or problems faced by the respondents

The major constraints or problems that faced the sample respondents are as

follows:

(i) Additional responsibility: Women entrepreneurs are facing additional

responsibility of maintaining an acceptable balance between their family &

business. It creates the problems for running business. It is sought from the study

that the productivity or performance of their businesses is partly inhibited by

problems associated with their family commitments.

(ii) Lack of business skill: Out of 140 respondents, 79(56.43%) respondents

know signing only & 20.71% are educated up to primary level. Therefore most of

the respondents are less educated and they have no business training. So, they

are not aware of business technology and market knowledge. It creates problems

for women in the setting up and running of business enterprises.

(iii). Mobility: Women entrepreneurs are restricted to move one location to

another. In the male dominated society, women are not treated equal to men. It

creates a barrier to women entry into business.

(iv) Lack of adequate capital: 30% respondents are not able to expand their

business due to lack of adequate capital. It is found from the study that they do not

get sufficient capital for expanding their business from GB.

(vi) Lack of training: Training helps to enhance a borrower business related skills

and knowledge. The objectives of training are to bridge the gap between existing

performance ability & desired performance. All the respondents feel the necessity

of training especially vocational training for increasing their business skill &

knowledge. But GB has no training facilities.

(vii)Lack of housing loan: The ownership of a house infuses borrower with a

sense of confidence security and self- respect to begin dreaming for a better life for

herself and her family. GB started also housing loan in 1984. But now a day,

housing loan is not given in the sample area. Borrowers feel that it is a great barrier

for improvement of their status.

(viii) Lack of adequate market information: The borrowers have the lack of

adequate market information due to less mobility. In order to solve the marketing

problem, they depend on family members & others. So, they feel that GB should

provide over all supports to create close interaction between the buyers and

sellers.

(ix) Illiteracy constraints: Illiteracy constraints the development of personality,

skill, motivation, right to share the possibilities and advantages of economic growth,

participation in decision making process of the respondents. So illiteracy affects the

effective women entrepreneurship

(xi) Unavailable loan for the first time: About 70% respondents feel that

receiving loan for the first time from GB is unavailable.

Conclusion The researcher has tried to analyze the performance of women entrepreneurs involved with GB under GGS and GCS. This paper contributes both theoretical & statistical identification of the opportunities of GGS and GCS. The results indicate that GGS has positive contribution on increasing the performance of the respondents due to its opportunities like opportunities in receiving & paying loan, opportunities for opening various savings account, opportunities for getting reasonably satisfactory dividend etc. The study reveals that monthly income of 10.59% respondents is Tk. 3000 to 5000, 64.71% is Tk. 5000 to 11000 and rest of the 24.70% is Tk. 11000 to above Tk.15000. On the other hand, monthly expenditure of 32.94% respondents is Tk. 2000 to 4000, 36.47% is Tk. 4000 to 6000, 18.82% is Tk. 6000 to 8000 & rest of the 11.77% is tk. 8000 to above 10000. The study indicates that the income of the respondents is greater than their expenditure. The study shows that the personal savings of 62.36% respondents is Tk. up to 4000, 18.82% is Tk. 4000 to 6000 and rest of the 20% is Tk. 8000 to 12000. Loan Insurance Fund of 92.94% respondents is up to Tk. 6000, rest of the 7.06% is Tk. 6000 to above Tk.10000. Amount of GPS of 68.24% respondents is Tk. up to 10000 and rest of the 31.76% is Tk. 10000 to above Tk.70, 000. The study finds that a variety of savings products encourages the borrowers for capital formation and increases their status in the society. The study finds that the borrowers are the owner of 96.5% share and they get reasonably satisfactory dividend under GGS from 2006 due to their better performance with GB. The study shows that the respondents face some difficulties such as additional responsibility, lack of business skill, mobility, lack of adequate capital, lack of training, lack of housing loan, lack of adequate market information, unavailable loan for the first time etc. The study suggests that GB should take


necessary measures on priority basis for overcoming these problems. The study mentions that rural women can make a high contribution in the national development if they can get sufficient support from the government and non-government organizations. References Ackerly, B., “Testing tools of Development: credit programs, Loan involvement and women’s empowerment”, IDS Bulletin, 26(3), P.56-68 Brihton, 1995. Afrin, Sharmina and Routray, J.K.,“Women Empowerment through Micro Credit

Programs in Bangladesh”, presented on “9th South Asian Management Forum: Management for Peace, Prosperity and Posterity”, organized by Amdisa, India and North South University of Dhaka, February, 2007.

Ainon Nahar Mizan, “Rural Women’s Economic Participation and Decision Making Power in the Family: A study of Grameen Bank Bangladesh”, Dissertation paper of Ph.D. Unpublished. llinois University, USA, 1992.

Amin, S. & Pebley, A., “Gender Inequality with households; The Impact of Women’s Development Program in 36 Bangladesh Villages”, The Bangladesh Development Studies, 1994.

Hashemi, S.M., Schulter, S.R. and Riley, A.P.,“Rural Credit Program and Women’s Empowerment in Bangladesh”, World Development, 24(4), p.635-653, 1996.

Hena. Most. Hasna,(2006). “Role of women Entrepreneur of Grameen Bank of Bangladesh: An Evaluation of Bogra Zone”.Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Management, University of Rajshahi, 2006.

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Khanka, S.S., “Entrepreneurial Development, New Delhi: S. Chand and Company Ltd”, 2003.

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Latifee,H.I.,(2009).Grameen Dialogue,April, 2009. Nabi, Ahmed Kazi, Performance of the Women Entrepreneurs of Grameen Bank of Bangladesh,in Management Champions of Change, ed. by Khair Jahan Sogra, Dhaka: University Press Limited, 1994. Naved, R.,“Empowerment of women; listening to the voices of women. The Bangladesh Development studies, Special Issue on Women, Development and Change”, Edited by Amin, BIDS, Dhaka, 22(2&3), p.121-155, 1994. Osmani, L.N.K., “Impact of Credit on the Relative Well-being of Women: Evidence

from the Grameen Bank,” IDS Bulletin, Vol. 29, No. 4, 1998. Rahman, M., “Grameen Bank Finance and Entrepreneurship Development in

Bangladesh: A case study of some selected Areas”, Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Islamic University, 1999. Saha,B., “Development of Women Entrepreneurship and Bank Financing

as a Support Service”, Bank Parikrama, Vol.XX, No. 34, 1995. Shahidur, R. Khandker, and et al, “Grameen Bank Performance and

Sustainability”,World Bank Discussion Paper 306, the World Bank, Washington D.C., 1995.

Younus, M. “Grameen Bank: A Bank for the Poor”. Grameen Bank, Dhaka. No 34, 1986.


Architectural Design as an Effective Aspect for

the Improvement of the Tourist Product

DIONISSIA FRANGOU

Assistant professor, Department of Interior Architecture, Decorative Arts and Design, Technological Educational Institute of Athens

DR. ZOE GEORGIADOU

Professor, Department of Interior Architecture, Decorative Arts and Design, Technological Educational Institute of Athens

DIMITRIS MARNELLOS

Contracted senior lecturer, Department Interior Architecture, Decorative Arts and Design, Technological Educational Institute of Athens

ABSTRACT

Greece, like many other countries in the past, was only interested in promoting tourism but lacked the equivalent interest in its quality. However, the era of “sea and sun” is now behind us. New trends and prospects of development are now focusing on the quality and alternative tourism rather than mass tourism. This development emerged in the international landscape, after the sociopolitical, environmental and economic changes that have occurred and continue to occur in recent years.

The transition from mass tourism to quality tourism is proven and necessary if tourism is to contribute to the development of Greece and the exit from the economic crisis. At this stage, however, facing the competition from neighboring countries, in terms of the product offered and target group, differentiation is a one-way road. Thus the Ministry of Tourism and the agencies involved in the tourist product are now in the process of establishing a framework which aims at the transition from mass tourism to quality tourism. This will include, among other things, modern infrastructure and the modernization of the old one, i.e. the partial or total withdrawal of obsolete units, renewal and the reuse of important buildings or complexes.

It is a fact that quality upgrade cannot be conceptualized separately from spatial upgrade. How feasible is, however, the creation of large tourist facilities nowadays? Should priority be given to the “all inclusive” tourist model and the “ghettoization” of tourist accommodation? International studies predict that future visitors should be able to customize every aspect of their residence experience and the services offered. Is it possible to do so within the context of the large tourist units operation and what is going to happen if all small and medium-sized enterprises continue to operate causing thus aesthetic pollution to the environment?

Based on the principles of sustainability, diversity, development of small and medium-sized businesses and customized services required by the visitor of the future, modernization and refurbishment of the existing tourist infrastructure will promote alternative tourism models. This will integrated into the residential complexes of each area, giving a personal style to any small unit, so that the visitor finds what he/she wants, tailored to his/her specific needs and requirements.

This tourist model, which is based on customization of services offered, leverages the existing infrastructure because it relies on personal relationships, promotes various types of tourism and enables the extension of the tourist season. The case studies that will be analysed are excerpts of student projects and demonstrate clearly how an existing tourist facility (specifically a city hotel), based on an interesting and strong key idea, can be transformed into a design or boutique hotel with all these quality characteristics listed above. The apparent benefit of this project is the utilization of the existing shell and the enhancement of the place and the services offered.

Keywords: Architectural design, tourist facilities, reconstruction, qualitative improvement, building preservation


INTRODUCTION

It is a general assumption that tourism plays a vital role in Greek economy and is one of the major sources of wealth, making a positive contribution to solving the Balance of External Payments problem. Thus, tourism development in Greece has been established so far by the development laws which first placed emphasis on creating accommodation for tourists only. The uncontrolled tourism development, however, has created major problems. It is for this reason that the latest development laws aim at the upgrade of tourism offer and the maintenance of the environment for the purpose of enhancing the quality of services offered and improving hotel infrastructure.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council33 , Greek

accommodation for the year 2006 consisted of 9,000 hotels with 600,000 beds and approximately the same number of rented rooms. Only 15 % of those were 4 and 5 stars hotels, while the largest part - about 43 % - were independent accommodation, i.e. rooms for rent of varying quality, apartments and private homes. Also, a large number of luxury hotels required upgrade and modernization. About 50% of total accommodation in the country fell under the low and medium cost options, which produce low efficiency and often unreliable34 service, mainly due to the seasonality in the tourism industry which often employs seasonal staff.

It is noteworthy that the 4 & 5 stars hotels represent only 15.9% of total

Greek hotel units and at the same time 39.2% of total accommodation in the Greek territory (because of their larger average size in relation to the small and medium-sized units). To conclude, we observe that 84.1% of the Greek hotels are up to 3 stars units, while over 60% of the rooms for rent belong to small and medium-sized units (SME).

Greek reality The Greek hotel market is primarily based on SME units. These are often family businesses employing untrained staff in order to compete with the large units of the competing countries, which have the advantage of economies of scale and professional organization, operation, networking and promotion. Also under the new Development Law 3908/201135 , the 1 and 2 stars hotel units may not receive any subsidy, while the 3 stars units can but in rare occasions. It is therefore understood that a way should be found to make the best possible use of the existing potential of the SME units.

33 World Travel and Tourism Council, The Impact of Tourism on Jobs and the Economy, London, 2006. Report available at http://www.wttc.org (access 01/09/2011). 34 Finding good and qualified staff is difficult, due to the prevailing low estimate of the career prospects in tourism and the notoriety that accompanies many hotel businesses (i.e. offering low wages, irregular working hours and difficult working conditions). 35 “Strengthening of Private Investment for Economic Development, Entrepreneurship and Regional Cohesion”, GG No. 8/01-02-2011.

A solution could be the transformation of many of these units into units of high aesthetics, quality infrastructure and high quality service, so as to turn a potential disadvantage to a strategic advantage36 Additionally, the Greek hotel market faces the challenge of the extension of tourist season, since the hotel occupancy rate for the year 2006, throughout the Greek territory, is close to or exceeds 50% only for the months of June, July, August and September, while for the rest of the months the occupancy rate fluctuates from 25% to 44%.Survey results (Andriotis 2002b) show that the contribution of accommodation enterprises to the economic development of a place is not uniform. More specifically, large units employ more outlandish executive staff in relation to the SME ones. Furthermore, larger units tend to buy fewer products from the local markets compared to SMEs, while small businesses employ more people from the familiar environment. Therefore, the smaller the company, the greater is contribution to the local development. However, the contribution of small scale investments to maintaining control of tourism development of an area is also considerable, having less negative impact on society, leading thus to better integration into the existing socio-political and economic environment and the sustainable development of the area. So it would be appropriate if the development and design agencies were to identify their preferences for the small or large scale investments, depending on the types of tourists they want to attract. 3 PERSPECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT According to a survey (Hotels 2020: Beyond Segmentation, Fast Future Research), which predicts tourism development by 2020, visitors should be able to customize every aspect of their residence experience. The traditional way of customer classification will be set aside and be replaced by a series of customized services within the context of creating an integrated customer service model/platform. This means that future guests will be able to adapt every aspect of their travel experience to their requirements, including technology, hotel services, accommodation, travel, expenses and communication. It is also worth noting that the aim should not be a reduction of costs and prices for competition purposes, but a rise in value and quality of the product offered and the hotel services for the consumers. Characteristically, there are some factors advocating for the tourist facilities upgrade: A) The Earth's climate has changed and shall continue to change. Tourism is not only influenced by the environment, but it also significantly affects it. It is very likely that climate change can dramatically affect the future customer behavior in terms of traveling and travel choices in general. Nowadays, the

36 See Koutoulas, D., (2006), The Market Influence of Tour Operators on the Hospitality Industry: The Case of Greek Resort Hotels. In: Papatheodorou, A. (ed.). Corporate Rivalry and Market Power: Competition Issues in the Tourism Industry. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers. 94-123


citizens-consumers around the world are increasingly informed of the environmental issues and exhibit increasing environmental awareness. Many tourists are now taking into consideration the «ecological footprint»37 caused by their journey to the destination• the time is not far-off when this footprint will determine the choice of destination, means of transport and accommodation. It is no coincidence that a constantly increasing number of hotel businesses promote environmentally friendly policies and express their environmentally friendly mindset. In this context, the adoption of a sustainable development model in all issues they face is a one-way road for the viability of these companies. B) Socio-economic changes have been occurring rapidly in recent years, contributing to the differentiation of the consumerist behavior of tourists worldwide38 ; consequently, the limited vacation time is replaced by a luxurious holiday, meaning customized, authentic holiday with respect to the local culture and environment. The traveler is now embracing luxury in the sense of self-fulfillment, experience and “good living”. For these consumers, experience gain and the “exclusive” and customized services are more important than anything else. Moreover, the role of technological innovations in the hotel sector (e.g. “smart” systems for effective management of the department of Food, enhanced systems of personal data security, “smart” lighting systems, alarm clocks which instead of ringing, they gradually dissipate light into the room, etc.) will become increasingly more important for the traveler of tomorrow. A large part of the potential tourists around the world seem indifferent to the mass tourism model and prefer to differentiate themselves, choosing to escape from the daily routine and enjoy authentic experiences in leisurely pace, away from the tourist hordes. «Slow travel»39 holiday and the vertical rise of ecotourism are two illustrative examples. These two types of vacation facilitate the development of small units that enable travelers to savor everyday life and/or nature in the places they visit. This type of vacation can be provided by hotels characterized by a small number of rooms, a distinctive architecture and decoration, a provision of personal services and high quality food, as well as the benefits of new technologies.

37 http://www.footprintstandards.org (access 23/07/2011) 38 SETE, 2010, Greek Tourism 2020: Proposal for a new development model, Tourism as Protagonist in the economic and social development of Greece, Athens, pp. 36-37. 39 This refers to holidays in serene locations with loose schedule, i.e. going for walks, enjoying local cuisine, exploring urban cities, etc.

4 ALTERNATIVE TOURISM OR QUALITY TOURISM The alternative or quality tourism and mass tourism can be viewed as “polar opposites”, with the alternative appearing as good and the mass as bad (Lane 1989, 1991, Pearce 1992). As several researchers have noted (Andriot 2003a, Andriotis 2000, EC 1993, Romeril 1985b, Vanhove 1997), the majority of the negative effects of tourism development result from mass tourism, because this type of tourism attracts a large number of people and requires large scale investments and less participation of the local community in the developmental process (Andriotis 2002a, Doggart & Doggart 1996, Faulkner 1998). Mass tourism creates more negative impact on tourist destinations, as it is characterized by a concentration of infrastructure and tourists in space and time and appears less sensitive towards domestic wealth-producing resources, due to the intensive tourism development and the behavior of tourists attracted by cheaper options (Coccossis 1996, Coccosis & Parpairis 1996, Pearce 1989). On the other hand, the alternative tourist is more energetic and engaged in more environmentally friendly activities. It is a fact that quality upgrade cannot be conceptualized separately from spatial upgrade. This means: a high-level architectural approach underlying both external appearance and interior fitting-out and decoration; a key concept of space design applying to all space as well as to the materials, the equipment and its individual functions; the selection of color and furniture pointing to the creation of a space with a holistic coherence; and, finally, the design focusing particularly on the detail and always taking into consideration the particular hotel location. 5 CASE STUDIES The following examples confirm the afore-mentioned data by implementing the key concept to an existing city hotel, altering thus the aesthetic and functional treatment of its areas with a holistic approach but also with respect to sustainability and the effects on the environmental balance. These are student project of the 7th semester of the Department of Interior Architecture, Decorative art and Design, of Technological Educational Institute of Athens (TEI), under the supervision of the instructors, Mrs. Frangou Dionissia and Mr. Dimitris Marnellos. The hotel is located in the center of Athens, near Syntagma square. It was renovated in 2007 and is primarily suitable for professionals and leisure travellers. Being a historic hotel – a reference point for the city of Athens and its visitors -, it was built in the 1960s by the architect P. Valsamakis and is considered to be a specimen of its time. It has 98 rooms distributed in four floors. On the ground floor there is the reception, the lobby and the breakfast room. The hotel can provide conference facilities. The basic concept underlying the design of the space should promote quality tourism as expressed through the interior design, propose new design ideas and concepts and provide solutions to certain problems that were identified by the preceding local investigation. The studies presented were chosen for their originality, uniqueness and diversity. The same methodology can be followed in smaller or


larger tourist facilities or tourist accommodation, drawing on the existing structures and shells.

Figure 1: ReceptionFigure 2: Lobby

Figure 3: Bar

Figure 4: Restaurant

5.1. The interpretation of space using modern aesthetics of reproducing shell directions: The main idea of the design lies in: the creation of organized flows with the simultaneous organization of parallel or perpendicular corridors inside the carrying organization of the building; the addition of specific structures inside the building, such as wood or glass dividers; the respect of the historical significance of the city, and harmonization of the end, modern design of the hotel with the environment; its transformation into a modern design hotel so that its design reflects to a considerable degree the aesthetic typology of the time it was built; the discretionary interventions in the original aesthetic, where the technology and the hotel requirements demand modern solutions so that the outcome serves the central idea and the requirements of a hotel in the city center. (Team: E. Kokologiannis, Ch. Sebastiao, M. Tomasevic & E. Yanniou, A. Karakoussi, G. Kelpetzidis).

Figure 5: Roof Figure 6: Room

Figure 7: Reception Figure 8: Lobby

Figure 10: Restaurant Figure 9: Bar


5.2. Design of space within space by deconstructing the existing shell. The objective of this proposal is the differentiation and the “break” of symmetry of the existing building. Its main element is the use of different shapes (triangles, trapeziums), irregular but sharp, contrary to the shell and any familiar form and shape that man is accustomed to use in space and furniture. At the same time, the design also emphasizes the transparency idea selecting materials such as fiberglass, glass and lighting of the interior space. In the interior space, the symmetric axes reading/readout and their fragmentation can be easily perceived. Onto their traces, asymmetric spaces were created inside the existing rigid shell, containing the internal uses and functions. So the reception, the bar, the circulation areas (i.e. corridors) but also the room spaces are “contained” within such types of structures and marked by them as well as by the intense presence of color. (Team: E. Americanou, M. Leontidou, K. Myrogiannis).



5.3. Symbolism (The elements of nature as a symbol). The key idea of the design is based on the four elements of nature: Air, Fire, Water, Earth, the sense that these elements express and the selection of the appropriate colors. The element of Air is linked with lightweight structures and perforated materials or transparency giving a sense of freedom and “cool” atmosphere of white, blue and gray colors. It is proposed for the room space. The element of Fire is associated with the selection of warm colors such as orange, yellow, red and similar quality lighting, giving the feeling of coziness and friendliness. It is mainly selected for the dining area. The element of Water is expressed in structures characterized by plasticity-fluidity and water-like elements, offering balance and tranquility. It is expressed in colors like blue and white. It is recommended for the entrance, lobby and bar. The element of Earth is embodied in “stable” structures and in materials such as wood, stone, fabric and upholstery, giving the feeling that nature has taken over

Figure 16: Restaurant Figure 15: Bar

Figure 17: Roof (inside) Figure 18: Room


the interior space. Shades of ocher, brown and gold colors are selected. (Head: G. Kouri, Th. Kostioutsouk) .

Figure 19: Reception Figure 20: Lobby Figure 21: Bar Figure 22: Restaurant Figure 23: Roof Figure 24: Room

5.4. Organic architecture. The central axis of the design is the idea of organic architecture and the forms that this approach produces. The organic architecture does not imitate shapes of natural (organic) forms, but includes those mechanisms which govern the various physical processes. It is a form of personal expression of the architect himself and at the same time the emanation of the continuous search of the human spirit to find new ways to express memories, desires and expectations (Iliopoulos, V., (2005), Lecture: “Organic architecture”, School of Architecture NTUA).



Figure 27: Bar Figure 28: Restaurant


The idea expresses the birth and co-existence of organic forms within the strict rules and principles of the given shell. These forms contain areas such as the reception, the restaurant itself as contour, the special ceilings with the lighting coming out of the shapes themselves without the use of lighting fixtures. The furniture chosen for public spaces (restaurant, lobby and bar) and private spaces embrace the users-clients of the hotel. These organic forms become more dynamic in the rooms and the roof garden bar in order to experience a new accommodation environment in a modern city hotel. (Team: Ch. Alfatzis, E. Kalyva, L. Polycandrioti). 6 CONCLUSIONS The transition from mass tourism to quality tourism is proven and necessary if tourism is to ensure the modernization of the tourist product offered but also the development of Greece and the exit from the economic crisis. This new tourism model is based on the international trends and developments, the principles that govern sustainability, diversity and development of SME businesses but also the services required by the visitor of the future. Tailored to his/her specific needs and requirements, the model establishes the customization of services offered, leverages the existing infrastructure, relies on personal relationships, promotes various types of tourism (conferences, religious or medical meetings, etc.) and enables the extension of the tourist season. In so doing, modernization and renewal of existing tourist infrastructure is achieved, promoting thus alternative tourism models integrated in the residential complexes of each area and giving a personal style to any small or larger unit. Therefore, the visitor-tourist finds what he or she wants, develops personal bonds with the place and people, reinforcing at the same time the dynamics of the Greek tourism product. Based on the principles of sustainability, diversity, development of small and medium-sized businesses and customized services required by the visitor of the future, modernization and refurbishment of the existing tourist infrastructure will promote alternative tourism models. This will integrated into the residential complexes of each area, giving a personal style to any small unit, so that the visitor finds what he/she wants, tailored to his/her specific needs and requirements. The apparent benefit of this project is the utilization of the existing shell and the enhancement of the place and the services offered.

BIBLIOGRAPHY • Τσάρτας, Π. (1996), Τουρίστες, Ταξίδια, Τόποι: Κοινωνιολογικές Προσεγγίσεις στον Τουρισμό, Αθήνα:Εξάντας Εκδοτική. • Ηγουμενάκος, Ν. (2000), Τουρισμός και Ανάπτυξη, Αθήνα: “Interbooks”. • Aνδριώτης, Κ. (2005), Τουριστική Ανάπτυξη και Σχεδιασμός, Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Παπασταμούλη. • Καπόλας, Λ. (2011), Βελτίωση της ποιότητας και ανάπτυξη της μικρομεσαίας ξενοδοχειακής επιχείρησης στην Ελλάδα μέσω της δημιουργίας ξενοδοχείων τύπου «boutique», Αθήνα, Εθνική Σχολή Δημόσιας Διοίκησης • Κοκκώσης, Χ. & Τσάρτας, Π. (2001), Βιώσιμη Τουριστική Ανάπτυξη και Περιβάλλον, Αθήνα,Κριτική. • Andriotis, K. (2000), Local Community Perceptions of Tourism as a Development Tool: The Island of Crete, PhD thesis, Bournemouth: Bournemouth University. • Andriotis, K. (2002a), Option in tourism development. Conscious versus conventional tourism. Anatolia. An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research. 13(1): 73-85. • Andriotis, K. (2002b), Scale of hospitality firms and local economic development. The case of Crete. Tourism Management, 23(4): 333-341. • Andriotis, K. (2003a), Coastal resorts morphology: The Cretan experience, Tourism Recreation Research, 28(1): 67-76. • Doggart, C. & Doggart, N. (1996), Environmental impacts of tourism in developing countries, Travel and Tourism Analyst, 2: 71-86 • EC (1993), Taking Account of Environment in Tourism Development, Study prepared by ECONSTAT EC DG XXIII, Brussels: European Commission. • Faulkner, B. (1998), Tourism development options in Indonesia and the case of agro-tourism in central Java, In: Laws, E., Faulker, B. & Moscardo, G. (eds), Embracing and Managing Change in Tourism: International Case Studies, (pp 202-221), London: Routledge. • Lane, B. (1989), Will rural tourism succeed? In: Hardy, S., Hardy, T. & Shaw, T. (eds), The Role of Tourism in the Urban and Regional Economy, (pp. 34-39), London: Regional Studies Association. • Lane, B. (1991), Sustainable tourism: A new concept for the interpreter, Interpretation Journal, 49: 1-4 • Vanhove, N. (19970, Mass tourism: Benefits and coast, In Wahab, S. & Pigram, J.J. (eds), Tourism Development and Growth – The Challenge of Sustainability, (pp. 50-77), London: Routledge. REFERENCES [1] Παγκόσμιο Συμβούλιο Ταξιδιών και Τουρισμού (2006), Ο Αντίκτυπος του

Τουρισμού στην Απασχόληση και την Οικονομία, Λονδίνο.

[2] ΣΕΤΕ (2011), Ελληνικός Τουρισμός 2011: Στοιχεία και Αριθμοί, Αθήνα.


[3] ΣΕΤΕ (2010), Ελληνικός Τουρισμός 2020: Πρόταση για το νέο αναπτυξιακό μοντέλο, Ο Τουρισμός Πρωταγωνιστής στην οικονομική και κοινωνική ανάπτυξη της Ελλάδας, Αθήνα.

[4] Daniel F. Wheeler, IV, (2006), Understanding the Value of Boutique Hotels, B.A., International Affairs, Massachusetts.

[5] GBR Consulting (2007), Μελέτη αναβάθμισης Παλαιών Ξενοδοχειακών μονάδων, Αθήνα (για λογαριασμό της Πανελλήνιας Ομοσπονδίας Ξενοδόχων).

[6] GBR Consulting (2002) , Έρευνα σχετικά με τα ξενοδοχεία boutique, Αθήνα.

Visiting Mexican Wineries: Can Education lead

to Appreciation?

MELISSA ST. JAMES

Management and Marketing, California State University Dominguez Hills, USA

THOMAS NORMAN

Management and Marketing, California State University Dominguez Hills, USA


Abstract This research examines whether educating consumers about Mexican wineries and wines through participation in organized tours of Mexican wineries may positively affect the perceptions that consumers hold of and their behavioral intentions towards Mexican wines. Using a pre-test/post-test methodology, this current research shows a significant increase in positive perceptions of and behavioral intentions toward Mexican wines among Southern California wine drinkers participating in organized tours of Mexican wineries. By further refining methods of communicating and marketing to target consumer groups, marketers can precisely craft appropriate, effective campaigns. Mexican wineries pairing with US restaurants hosting organized tours of Mexican wineries to educate Southern California wine drinkers could be an effective marketing technique. The recognition of active, organized pairing of Mexican wineries with US restaurants to educate Southern California wine drinkers as influential on perceptions of and behavioral intentions toward Mexican wines is the most important finding.

Introduction

Ten years ago interest in Mexican wines seemed to be on the upswing. (Ma del Carmen, 1999)A few years later, in 2002, Fodors.com stated “Although Mexican wines are still relatively unknown in the United States; the industry is exploding in Mexico…” and well-known Mexican food consultant Lula Bertran stated “…in the last decade, Mexican winemakers have begun to make wine of a quality that seemed unattainable before.” (Sharpe, 2001) So, why aren’t we sipping Monte Xanic Syrah with our haute cuisine here in California? One 2002 study examined the case of Mexican wine “introduced to consumers in a Mexican restaurant versus a more general themed contemporary restaurant” and found that this type of matched introduction may be useful, although getting consumers to buy Mexican wines for the home might be more difficult (Olsen, Nowak, and Clarke, 2002).

This current study examines the concept of educating U.S. consumers about Mexican wines on a more in-depth scale in an effort to increase awareness of and purchase intentions towards Mexican wines. A San Diego restaurant has begun organizing tours of the Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico’s largest and arguably most well-known wine producing region. The Valle de Guadalupe is on its way to earning a reputation as the "Napa Valley of Mexico." Located 12 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, the Valle de Guadalupe runs in a northeast direction toward Tecate and the area is comparable to many coastal influenced west coast wine regions, providing cool nights even during the growing season's hottest months. (Business Wire, 2014). This three day, all inclusive tour includes transportation from San Diego to the Valle de Guadalupe, two nights at a legendary local seaside hotel, all winery tours and tastings, most meals and a great deal of informative fun for all.

The question is: can these educational tours accomplish what nearly 10 years of marketing has not? A pre-test post-test design surveying U.S. consumers

about their perceptions and expectations of Mexican wines was conducted among attendees of arranged tours (multiple tours of approximately 50 people each tour). Previous research “suggest(ed) that Mexican wine producers should first penetrate the market through Mexican food restaurants.” (Olsen et. al., 2002). This current study supports a similar but more in-depth strategy; by pairing with an established, well respected restaurant for informative and fun tours, evidence is presented that visiting Mexican wineries may increase awareness and appreciation of Mexican wines and wineries with positive changes in the behavioral intentions of visitors..

While the pool of attendees/participants in this study was modest, the initial results are encouraging and this study will be replicated and expanded. Many of the participants in the tours had low expectations of the Mexican wineries and wines before undertaking the tour, but those expectations were exceeded. This study also endeavored to uncover the motivation for participating in the tours and found that most participants were open minded and wanted to learn about the Mexican wineries and wines because they were prompted by the restaurant owners promoting the tours.

The results of this study show that educating consumers about Mexican wineries and wines appears to positively affect the perceptions that consumers hold of, and their behavioral intentions towards, Mexican wines.

Theoretical Framework

In a 2002 study, Olsen, Nowak and Clarke note that “a product's country of origin may affect its acceptance by consumers, either in a positive or a negative fashion.” Olsen et al also point to numerous studies examining the country-of origin effect on consumers’ perceptions and preferences (Olsen et al., 2002; Peterson and Jolibert, 1995). Brown and O’Cass (2006) examined consumer perceptions of foreign cultures on wine consumption in Australia noting the ethnocentrism cited by Roth and Romeo (1991) persists. Research has shown that consumers prefer to purchase domestic products over foreign unless there is some established expertise within the country of origin (Roth and Romeo, 1991).

Olsen et al. (2002) also note that wine faces country-of-origin and even region-of-origin biases (Olsen et al., 2002; Duhan, Kiecker and Guerrero, 1998). Do et al. (2009) found that in Vietnam wine-drinking motivations are affected by the historical linkage to France and that the utilitarian and symbolic aspects of consumption may be more important than experience. These studies, and others, point to the fact that wine quality evaluations are subjective and origin can serve as a cue to a wine’s quality (Olsen et al, 2002; Ettenson, Wagner and Gaeth, 1999; Han and Terpstra, 1999; Wall, Liefeld and Helsop, 1991).

This current study examines the following hypotheses:

H1: Consumers who participate in educational tasting tours of Mexican wineries will have increased positive perceptions of Mexican wines/wineries/winemaking.


H2: Consumers who participate in educational tasting tours of Mexican wineries will have increased positive behavioral intentions towards Mexican wines/wineries/winemaking.

Survey participants were asked questions relating to their experience with and intentions towards Mexican wines and wineries both prior to and after participating in the tour.

Information was also collected about the survey participant’s age, gender, level of education and ethnicity to be used as control variable in the regression models used to test the hypotheses.

Methodology

For this study a nonprobablility sample has been utilized. A nonprobability sample, also known as a convenience sample, (Cooper and Schindler, 1998) is appropriate for an exploratory study such as this one as the research question and findings apply only to wine consumers and not the general population.

A survey was conducted among a population of 111 attendees of organized winery tours and tastings. These tours were hosted and arranged by a San Diego restaurant and included educational tours as well as tastings at six Mexican wineries over three days. Respondents were asked questions before and after the Mexican tour.

Data Analysis & Findings

Demographic Data

The demographic information for participants was as follows. Age groups were skewed toward the 55+ group with 52.7% falling into this category (see Table 1 below). Considering the legal drinking age is 21 in the US, and that Kerr et al. (2004) found significant negative effects of age for beer and spirits consumption, but not for wine consumption the age distribution is not surprising. It would be interesting to note if tours to regions such as Napa Valley also report a higher percentage of 55+ visitors.

Table 1: Demographic Data- Age

Answer Options Response25-34 8.9% 35-44 11.6% 45-54 25.9% 55+ 52.7%

The gender of participants was more evenly distributed with females comprising 60.3% of the respondents. This fits the pattern reported by the Wine

Market Council (2009) that wine is the preferred form of beverage alcohol for more women than men. The respondents primarily identified themselves as White (91.1%). The sample includes a smaller number of respondents who identify themselves as Asian (3.6%) or Latino (3.6%) and a smaller number chose not to identify with a racial or ethnic group. The educational level of the respondents was mostly college-educated with 35 % possessing a bachelor’s degree, 32% possessing graduate degrees, 21% possessing doctoral degrees and the remainder having attended some college.

Question #1 asked the level of experience the participants had with Mexican wines/wineries prior to the trip. Only 20% of the respondents had tasted Mexican wines and 18% had visited Mexican wineries prior to the trip.

Question 2 of the survey asked about the perceptions of the respondents prior to visiting the Mexican wineries and show as high as 77% of respondents having a Poor, Below Average or Average opinion of Mexican wine quality. An even greater number had similarly low opinions of the reputations of Mexican wineries, the winery staff’s knowledge of wines, the accessibility of wines and availability of wine tours.

Question 3 asked about the behavioral intentions of the respondents. When asked, prior to the Mexican winery trip, respondents indicated they would not engage in behaviors such as buying Mexican wines, recommending Mexican wines to a friend or visiting Mexican wineries, with more than three-quarters of the group responding Never, Probably not or Maybe to these survey items.

Questions 2 and 3 of the survey were repeated, but this time respondents were asked about their perceptions and opinions after the Mexican winery tours and tastings. Respondents’ opinions and behavioral intentions were greatly enhanced following the tours/tastings and exposure to the Mexican wines, wineries and winemakers. The Above Average and Excellent percentages ranged from 48% to 85% for perceptions and from 34% to 84%.

Next we examined whether perceptions of quality were associated with purchase intentions, and as one might expect very strong effects are found. Even after controlling for the effects of age and gender, those wine drinkers who found the wine sampled on the tour to be of high quality return to the U. S. with a much stronger intention to purchase Mexican wines at restaurants and retail stores, justifying the efforts being made to introduce U.S. wine drinkers to Mexican wine via such tours. Models were also run controlling for ethnicity and level of education, but these variables did not materially improve the model or change the positive correlation between and perceived quality and intention to purchase. The sizes of the effects are +0.73 and +0.71 points, respectively on a 5 point scale of purchase intentions, which is quite high. This signals an upward shift of almost one category on the Likert scale.

These results have a high level of statistical significance for both the models with the coefficient measuring the post visit perception of wine quality having a p-value of less than 0.001. The first regression model has a high F score (15.19), providing evidence that the first model which predicts post visit intention to


purchase Mexican wine in a restaurant explains about 22 percent of the variance. The second regression model also has a high F score (6.73), providing evidence that the second model which predicts post visit intention to purchase Mexican wine in a retail store explains about 21 percent of the variance. One should also note that the first model shows that respondents 55 years or older report a lower intention to purchase Mexican wine in restaurants compared to those under age 35, but this result is not statistically significant with respect to their intention to purchase Mexican wine in retail stores.

Also, even after controlling for the effects of age and gender, those wine drinkers who found the wine sampled on the tour to be of high quality plan to recommend Mexican wines to a friend, suggesting additional positive spillover effects of these visits for those wineries with a good quality product. However the intention to return to Mexican valley wineries was not related to the post visit perception that the wine was of high quality. The size of the effect of wine quality on recommending Mexican wines to a friend is +0.78 on a 5 point scale of purchase intentions, which is quite high. The model in Table 9 have a high level of statistical significance for both the model and coefficient measuring the post visit perception of wine quality with p-value of less than 0.001. The first regression model has a high F score (15.19), providing evidence that the first model which predicts post visit intention to purchase Mexican wine in a restaurant explains about 32 percent of the variance. The second regression model also a lower F score (2.89), which is statistically significant at the 5 percent level. The results show females are more likely to plan a return trip to the Mexican valley wineries and those 55 and older are less likely than those 35 and younger to plan a return trip. However, the variable we were testing (post visit perception of Mexican wine quality) was not statistically significant.

Conclusion and Recommendations

While the number of participants in this study was modest, the initial results are certainly encouraging and the study will be replicated and expanded. Many of the participants in the tours had low expectations of the Mexican wineries and wines before undertaking the tour but those expectations were exceeded. This study also endeavored to uncover the motivation for participating in the tours and found that most participants were open-minded and wanted to learn about the Mexican wineries and wines because they were prompted by the restaurant owners promoting the tours.

Since we know that consumers prefer to purchase domestic products over foreign unless there is some established expertise within the country of origin (Roth and Romeo, 1991), Mexico has the need to overcome the lack of a substantial positive reputation in the wine industry. Mexico has a 500 year history of wine production (in fact, Mexico has the oldest winery in the Americas, Casa Madero, founded in 1597 (Kapnick, 2002)), but their alcohol beverage industry is dominated by the production and consumption of brandy, rum and tequila.(Ma del Carmen,

1999) The question remains then…how to enhance the Mexican wine industry’s reputation. This research builds on the previous research that “suggest(ed) that Mexican wine producers should first penetrate the market through Mexican food restaurants.” (Olsen et. al., 2002). If Mexican wineries partner with or at minimum collaborate with U.S. restaurants or tour companies to provide educational, fun and informative tasting tours, perceptions of and behavioral intentions towards Mexican wines and wineries can be enhanced.

The results of this study show that educating consumers about Mexican wineries and wines may positively affect the perceptions consumers hold of, and their behavioral intentions towards, Mexican wines.

REFERENCES Brown, U., & O’Cass, A. (2006) “Foreign Wine Consumption in Australia: The

Influence of Consumer Perceptions to Foreign Cultures on Wine Choice,” Journal of Food Products Marketing, (12)2, pp. 15-26.

Duhan, Dale F., Pamela L. Kiecker, Charles Areni and Cari Guerrero (1999) "Origin Information and Retail Sales of Wine," International Journal of Wine Marketing, pp.44-57. Do, V. Patris, B and Valentin, D. (2009) “Opinions on Wine in a New Consumer Country: A Comparative Study of Vietnam and France,” Journal of Wine Research, 20(3), pp. 253-271. Ettenson, Richard, Janet Wagner and Gary Gaeth (1988) "Evaluating the Effect of Country-of-Origin and the `Made in the USA' Campaign: A Conjoint Analysis," Journal of Retailing, 64 (Spring), pp.85-99. Han, C. Min and Vern Terpstra (1988) "Country-of-Origin Effects for Uni-- National and Bi-National Products," Journal of International Business Studies, 19 (Summer), pp.235, 21 pgs. Kerr, W. C., Greenfield, T. K., Bond, J. Ye, Y. and Rehm, J. (2004) “Age, period and cohort influences on beer, wine and spirits consumption trends in the US National Alcohol Surveys.” Addiction, 99 (9), pp. 1111-1120. Ma del Carmen Morfin (1999), “The history and current status of the Mexican wine industry,” International Journal of Wine Marketing, Vol. 11, Iss. 3; pg. 58, 6 pgs Olsen, Janeen E, Linda Nowak, and T K Clarke (2002), “Country of origin effects and complimentary marketing channels: Is Mexican wine more enjoyable when served with Mexican food?” International Journal of Wine Marketing, Vol. 14, Iss. 1; pg. 23, 12 pgs.


Peterson, Robert A. and Alain Jolibert (1995) "A Meta-Analysis of Country-of Origin Effects," Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 26, No. 4 , pg. 883, 7 pgs. Sharpe, Patricia (Aug 2001), “Hecho en Mexico: Instead of a margarita with your chicken breast in red mole, try a Cabernet Sauvignon from Mexico's growing wine country.” Trejo-Pech, Carlos O., et al. "Is the Baja California, Mexico, Wine Industry a Cluster?." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 94.2 (2012): 569-575. Wall, Marjorie, John Liefeld and Louise A. Heslop (1991) "Impact of Country-- of-Origin Cues on Consumer Judgements in Multi-cue Situations: A Covariance Analysis," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 19 (Spring), pg. 105, 9 pgs. Wine Market Council (2009) “The U.S. Wine Market Consumer Trends & Analysis” http://www.winemarketcouncil.com/pdf/tracking_09.pdf

The Impact of Tourism on Crime in Cyprus

MARKIANOS KOKKINOS

Cyprus Police, Headquarters, Nicosia, Cyprus

ANDREAS KAPARDIS

Department of Law, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus


ABSTRACT

Many are those who believe that tourism is the reason for the increase of illegal behaviour and higher rates of criminality. The research reported attempts to investigate and measure for the first time the involvement of tourists in crime in the Republic of Cyprus. Unlike previous work, the interaction of tourism and crime is examined by concentrating on tourists as perpetrators and not as victims. Data was collected by surveying a representative sample of police records, where insufficient information is usually kept. Estimation of the whole situation is made and the analysis is performed, along with the results of the passenger survey conducted by the Statistical Service of Cyprus (CYSTAT). For consistency with the passenger survey, the survey within the police is based on similar methodology and expansion techniques. The results of this study estimate the involvement of tourists in crime, verify their characteristics and identify several factors affecting criminal behaviour by tourists. Important findings, concerned with the prevention of crime and promotion of Cyprus as a safe tourist destination, are now available and are expected to raise awareness for stakeholders involved in the tourism industry, as well as in the national crime prevention strategy of the Ministry of Justice and Public Order. Additionally, the findings yielded by the research provide a new framework and ultimately the basis for further research. Key Words: Tourism, Crime, Interaction, Offenders INTRODUCTION Rationale

For many countries, tourism is a vital source of income for their economy and each year they compete with each other to attract more and more tourists. Cyprus is one of these many countries that actively promote inbound tourism. The impact of inbound tourism on a country’s socio-culture may be both positive and negative. According to Witt (1991), the influence of tourism on the country’s society is expected to be greater as the difference between locals and tourists increases. The fact that many products, services and parties are involved and related to tourism, makes it very difficult to measure the consequences of tourism. Thus, the challenge for decision makers still remains as there is a dilemma as to which type of tourists they should attract so that the resulting benefits from tourism are in excess of the losses (Spanou, 2006). A further reason for this dilemma is that there is no empirical data available and most of the research available has been based on estimates, therefore the resulting measures of tourism impact cannot be accurately ascertained or universally applied. The consequences and impact of tourism is apparent in other spheres of social life on the island. The development of tourism is often associated with the increasing tendency that shows certain types of crime (Mathieson & Wall, 1982; Pizam & Mansfeld, 1996). Linking crime to tourism is an emerging field in both criminology and tourism studies (Steyn et al. 2009). However, it cannot be proven that this

evolution in crime and social instability is entirely originated from the tourism development and not from the overall modernisation and globalisation processes that are in fact highly associated with the growth of tourism. Even though a number of researchers have examined the association between tourism and the development and growth of crime, conflicting findings have been reported (Lankford, 1996 in Gursoy et al., 2002: 83). The phenomenon is unexpectedly compound and multifaceted, emerging from the conduct of visitors in unknown environments and societies to the institutional activities, legal systems and measures that intend to provide security and safety to them. In recent years, growing interest by media and politicians about the issue of tourism and crime is observed in many countries (Botterill & Jones, 2010), with criminal activities against tourists being among the main concerns. To date, however, this tourism-crime nexus has received little scholarly attention.

Inbound tourism and massive arrivals of foreign visitors might affect and alter a country’s or community’s social values, customs and traditions (Tran et al., 2008). Since the independence of Cyprus in 1960, both tourism and crime have been increasing. This could be considered as a warning of the change of Cyprus’ small, closed and traditional society to a bigger and more multicultural one. The involvement of tourists in crime is paramount and can be thought of as acting in two ways, namely (a) tourists seen as a target of criminal activities and (b) tourists committing criminal activities. Regarding tourists as criminal offenders, either against locals or other tourists, is something that little is still known about as far as Cyprus is concerned. In fact, no official quantitative data exists to measure this, apart from occasional media reports. Tourism and Crime in Cyprus

Cyprus has only become famous among tourists since its independence in 1960. The increase in tourist arrivals has been impressive, from 24,000 in 1960 reaching the maximum of 2.696,700 in 2001, with the revenue being estimated at €2.172,7 millions, the maximum value recorded ever (CYSTAT, 2013). Cyprus tourism, like world tourism, was highly affected in the last decade of 2001, by the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 and the “bird flu” virus which was spread all over the world mainly during 2007. Yet, unlike other destinations, Cyprus managed to keep the island safe enough and, consequently, its tourism at high levels. Cyprus has traditionally been established as a popular tourist destination mainly for visitors from Europe. During 2012, the majority of holidaymakers (94,0%) arrived from European countries while 73,4% from countries of the European Union. The United Kingdom remains the country’s most important source of tourism, making up the biggest share of the entire tourist arrivals. Specifically in 2012, tourist arrivals reached 2.464,908, with the British tourists accounting for 38,9%. Russia increases year by year reaching 19,2%, while Germany and Greece follow with 5,9% and 5,4% and Sweden with 4,8% (CYSTAT, 2013). As indicated by Eurostat, the level of crime in Cyprus is among the lowest in Europe (Eurostat, 2013). Indeed, for a country with a population of 865,900 inhabitants, only 7,973 cases of serious crime were reported in 2012 (Cyprus Police, 2013). Most of these cases concerned thefts, burglaries and other offences


against property. Whilst the average40 crime/population ratio in the member states of the European Union was almost 5,000 serious crime cases per 100,000 people in 2010, the corresponding ratio in Cyprus was only about 1,000. Even though comparisons between countries are not absolutely consistent since definitions of crime types and collection methods vary, the differences in these figures are big enough to suggest that on a comparative level the rate of serious crime in Cyprus can be described as very low. However, several political and social changes which have occurred in Cyprus during the last decade show an increase in various types of crime. Specifically, the opening of the crossing points in the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating the Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus from the free areas of the Republic of Cyprus, known as the “green line”, on April 23, 2003, has contributed to increases in crime, since it has facilitated the movement of offenders from both the Greek-Cypriot and the Turkish-Cypriot communities. It should be noted in this context that there is no direct cooperation with the occupied northern part of the island, which is only recognised by Turkey. Thus, the justice system and laws of the Republic of Cyprus cannot be applied throughout the whole island. Total crime in Cyprus over the last decade, has a slow but constantly increasing trend, starting from 17,741 reported cases in 2003 and reaching 21,042 cases in 2012 (Cyprus Police, 2013). In the next section, a brief review is provided of the international bibliography concerning the phenomenon of tourism and crime, followed by the research methodology, data analysis and findings. Finally, the conclusions that can be reached on the basis of the findings obtained and their policy implications are considered. LITERATURE REVIEW The terms and conditions for most tourists were and still are safety and peace in the place of destination (Holcomb & Pizam, 2006; Avraham & Ketter, 2008). The international literature is concerned with and troubled not only by the attractions that lead tourists to a destination but, also, tourists’ worries regarding their personal safety (Kozak et al., 2007). Most researches conclude that the increased risk in an area spoils its reputation as a tourist destination (Dimanche & Lepetic, 1999; Ferreira & Harmse, 2000; Holcomb & Pizam, 2006; Kozak et al., 2007). They also register the behaviour of tourists, as well as how and to what extent their behaviour changes during vacations (Cohen & Felson, 1979; Ryan, 1993; Mawby, 2000; Mawby et al., 2010). The motives for tourists’ choices, as well as what prevents them from going to a destination (Crotts, 2003; Kozak, et al., 2007), have also been the subject of research. Social scientists have attempted to prove whether the common view that an increase in tourism entails an increase in crime (Fujii, & Mak, 1980; Pelfrey, 1998) is true, and if so, what supports this entailment. Their interest is challenged by the importance of tourism in economic development and its interrelationship with

40 Data provided may not be strictly comparable as different countries may choose to process their national crime statistics in a different way, depending on the severity of the offence, the relevant legislation and procedures.

crime (Cohen & Felson, 1979; Apostolopoulos et al., 1996). Even though a number of researches have been carried out to examine the association linking tourism and the development and growth of crime, contradictory results have been reported (Lankford, 1996 in Gursoy et al., 2002: 83). There are reports by researchers claiming that locals’ perceptions and beliefs about tourism development is highly associated with crime (Rothman, 1978; Runyan & Wu, 1979; Sethna, 1980; Belisle & Hoy, 1980; Pizam & Pokela, 1985; Liu et al. 1987; Milman & Pizam, 1988; Long et al. 1990; Lankford, 1996). Concerning the case of Cyprus, while tourism has facilitated the country’s development and economic growth, there are still concerns among the locals about the negative impact of tourism, mainly the modification of the traditional culture, change in lifestyle and influence on crime (Peristianis & Warner, 1996). Although there is still no consensus on whether an increase of tourism increases crime in an area or whether there are other independent variables that contribute to crime rise, the approaches describing the causes that make the tourist an easier victim of criminal violence are better demarcated (Ryan, 1993; Harper, 2000). Several researchers, studying mostly the statistical data of local police authorities, have reported that tourists are a population more vulnerable to criminal assaults than local residents (de Albuquerque & McElroy, 1999; Harper, 2000). The vulnerable position of tourists is also evidenced by the fact that they experience property crimes (larceny, robbery) more often. This is shown by significant increases in crime in high tourist areas and during tourist seasons (Mawby et al., 2010). So far, researches have focused on the causal relationship between crime and tourism but are limited by virtue of studying the causes that victimise the tourist (Ryan, 1993; Harper, 2000). The international literature is lacking in studies of the profile and the actions (wherever there are any) of the tourist as offender, whether adult or juvenile. There are no research findings that trace the profile of the tourist predator. The exception has been Ryan (1993) in the third type of his classification, namely crime as a by-product of tourism development committed not by local residents but by tourists as well. Josiam et al. (1998) in their research on young students’ damaging behaviour during their vacations confirmed their inclination to excessive alcohol and drug consumption and promiscuity and also the responsibility of the tourist industry that encourages such behaviours. A comparative study (Hughes et al., 2008) based on a sample of young tourists who visited Majorca and Ibiza, indicated that a main holiday priority among young tourists travelling abroad is nightlife participation. Youth-focused resorts comprise a large number of bars and nightclubs featuring extensive use of alcohol and drugs, which are among the key risk factors for aggression and violence. Muehsam and Tarlow (1995), estimating that safety as guarantor of tourism development is based on police (the means, the directness and the effectiveness of police action), dealt with police’s operation and training, surveyed the literature and interviewed high-ranking police officials in the USA. They found lack of cooperation between police and the tourism industry. Although police officers are called in to protect not only citizens (local residents and tourists) but the economy of a place as well, they are not well trained for the needs of local tourism development. They act spontaneously and ignorantly. In some exceptional cases


(see Caribbean) the police is part of the problem (McElroy, 2006). The profile of police, more of a repressive apparatus and inefficient for the prevention and management of aggressiveness and delinquency, results in the tourism industry’s refusal of police presence because tourists are scared away (Tarlow, 2006). Tourists, however, evaluate positively the effective intervention of police (Holcomb & Pizam, 2006). Research design and methodology This research reported in this paper has been concerned with the study of inbound tourism in Cyprus and its involvement in crime, in an effort to investigate the hypothesis of whether crime is directly related to tourist arrivals, as perceived by some locals. Multiple sources of data can be used for better understanding (Ferrance, 2000), such as interviews, focus groups, portfolios, questionnaires, journals, individual files, checklists and case studies. The present study has utilised the findings of the passenger sample survey conducted by CYSTAT that took place at the departures of the airports during the period 2009-2012. In addition, as far as offending is concerned, the analysis is based on Cyprus Police recorded crime data for the same period. As most of the information on tourist offenders is kept in written form in police records, a sample survey within the police records was the ideal methodology for gathering the necessary data. The main use of this police data is to estimate the involvement of tourists in criminal activities during the period 2009-2012. This is achieved by expanding/projecting the cases included in the sample of police records involving a foreigner to the total population of police cases involving a foreigner, thus estimating its composition. The estimation of the entire population of foreign offenders is based on the ratio between the sample and the benchmark population (i.e. total number of cases reported to the police that involve a foreigner). This benchmark population is known from the annual police statistics. The ratio methodology applied needs to consider other factors as well in order to represent the actual composition and characteristics of the population. Therefore, adjustments need to be made on the original sample data with the aid of projecting ratios. In particular, the projecting ratios are computed by taking into consideration the year, district and type of offence (serious and minor). Finally, since the researchers’ interest is only tourist offenders, an alteration is made to extract the total estimated population of tourist offenders. This methodology is similar to the methodology used in the passenger survey of CYSTAT, where prior to projecting the sample measures to estimate the population parameters, sample data is adjusted with ratio factors based on the year, tourist’s nationality, and airport of entry. Then the sample data is expanded to map the total number of travellers, as supplied by the Civil Aviation. Finally, it should be clarified that the study reported has been carried out under certain constraints, including the lack of detailed and accurate information about tourists’ involvement in crime due to the limitations of official police criminal statistics, the complexity of the nature of criminal statistics and the identification of real tourists from those who claim to be tourists. The absence of any local estimates of the size of the dark figure of crime in general and tourists as offenders

and victims in particular is another such limitation. Thus, it should be understood that the findings of this project are based on the cases reported and detected by the police. This means valuable information and data is missing and the picture yielded by the official data is thus not complete. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS The primary data from the survey was coded and analysed using SPSS. Analyses employed both simple and advanced statistical methods. As well as the frequency distribution and cross-tabulations, which enabled analysis of the survey data, Chi-square tests, t-tests, Pearson Correlations, Anova, post-hoc tests and Correspondence Analysis enabled inferential statistics and verifications of the results drawn from the survey data and conclusions reached about the population under study. Inferential data analysis involves “…using quantitative data collected from a sample to draw conclusions about a complete population” (Hussey & Hussey, 1997, pp.187). The estimation and extraction of the data concerning tourists, provides an answer to the major research question of what the participation of tourists in crime is. On average, during the period 2009-2012, it is estimated that tourist offenders were responsible for 2,7% of the total officially-known and recorded crime. Bearing in mind that tourist arrivals during 2009-2012 were about 2.3 million per year, this result on its own could be used to state that generally tourist offenders have not significantly contributed directly to any crime increases as a total. As suggested by Spanou (2006), it cannot be proven that the 3% increase in serious crime in 2000 was the result of the increase in the volume of tourists. However, on its own this does not imply that tourism has not contributed at all to the country’s crime level since tourists may indirectly tempt criminal activities committed by locals. Comparing the ratio of tourists and foreigners (i.e. non-Cypriot nationals), we can state that the proportion of tourists as part of foreigners is kept at low levels. On average, tourists count for only 7,4% of the total crimes committed by foreigners. This result could be used to argue that any increase in crime attributable to foreigners is not caused by tourist offenders but by foreigners residing in Cyprus in other capacities such as third-country nationals on working visas, asylum seekers or European Union nationals in employment. This, together with the “adverse publicity of the press which tends to present tourism as the cause of all evils” (Spanou, 2006), explains the negative impact the occasional crime committed by tourists has on the image locals have of tourists and their status since the locals generally talk about tourists as ‘foreigners’. Regardless of the pejorative media reporting of both Cypriot and foreign offenders, foreigners are described worse than the Cypriots. This is can be blamed on the perception of locals that foreigners threaten the society’s culture and civilization (Tsoudis, 2001). An unexpected finding of the data analysis is that, during the period 2009-2012 inclusive, tourists committed more serious offences than minor ones. On average it is estimated that 55% of the crimes committed by tourists are serious and 45% are minor. This result also contributes to the negative perception and reputation of tourists, since, as found, the crimes committed by tourists are usually serious and thus remain longer in people’s minds.


In order to verify whether there is a significant difference between the observed crime in each district and the expected crime according to the volume of tourists in each district, the Chi-square test was used. It was found that tourists in Ammochostos/Famagusta and Limassol are more frequently involved in criminal acts than expected whereas tourists in Paphos and Nicosia are less frequently involved in crime than expected. It was also found that there is a vital difference in the seriousness and the type of the crimes committed in different districts. Thus, the perception of tourism and crime may vary depending on the location’s characteristics and association with tourism and crime levels. Gender differences in criminality have long-ago been identified (Sporer & Salfati, 2006). In support of other studies, males were most probable to participate in anti-social behaviour (Hughes et al., 2008). Based on the passenger survey’s and this study’s survey results, it is estimated that even though males account for approximately 45,8% of tourist arrivals during 2009-2012, they are responsible for 81,5% of the total crime committed by tourists. In contrast, females, who comprised 54,2% of the arrivals, make up the remaining 18,5% of the total crime. Moreover, it is found that male tourists are more likely to commit serious offences than minor ones while the reverse was found to be the case with female tourists. Based on the survey’s results it was calculated that the mean age of tourist offenders is 30 years old, compared to the mean age (41 years) of the tourists in Cyprus. It is concluded that tourist offenders are younger tourists, “who tend to reach their limits once they are abroad” (Spanou, 2006). Tourists aged 20-31 years were found to be the most problematic since they are responsible for most of the crimes (57,0%) committed by tourists, while they comprise only 19,5% of the total tourist arrivals. For older age groups the situation in terms of their involvement in crime is very small. Clements and Richardson’s statement that “Cyprus is still an up-market sunshine destination offering a friendly atmosphere and high quality service” is also supported by Laffeaty (1993). It is noted that Cyprus has always been an attractive destination for the age group of 45 to 60 and professionals around 30. Offending rates of juveniles under 15 years is also kept at very low levels at about 0,1%. As expected, most of the crime committed by tourists occurs during the peak season of summer with the highest number of tourists, which is during June-August, accounting for approximately 53% of the total crime committed by tourists over the remaining nine-month period for the years in question. It has to be noted that tourist arrivals during the same period June-August amount to approximately 43% of the total tourist arrivals. As already stated, tourists’ involvement in crime has not contributed directly to the crime increase. To further demonstrate this, a comparison of the total crime is made with and without tourists as shown in Figure 1. As seen, the distribution of crime supports the hypothesis that tourists do not impact significantly on the volume of crime. Even for the period June-August, the change is very slight. Similar to the case of Italy, overall results indicate that the resident population has a greater effect on crime than the tourist population (Biagi et al., 2012); in other words, most crime in Cyprus is committed by residents and not by tourists. The latter, however, is an easy scapegoat for those residents who are prejudiced.

Figure 5: Total crime with and without tourists by month

It is interesting to observe that the majority of serious crimes committed by tourists, concern three specific offences, namely conspiracies (29,5%), burglaries, housebreaking and similar offences (28,1%) and forgery (22,2%). The most common minor offences committed by tourists involve mainly common nuisance, idle and disorderly persons, theft of property under €1000, indecency, offences related to the Law for aliens and immigration, common assault, malicious damage to property up to €1000, assaults causing actual (but not serious) bodily harm. Conclusions and recommendations Tourism is a global and fast moving industry. Since security and safety are important factors for a community’s tourism development and growth, it must be ensured that Cyprus continues to be a safe country by effectively tackling known causes of crime. The key finding of the present study is that Cyprus attracts tourists with low involvement in criminal activities, thus not contributing significantly to the country’s total crime trend. This finding should be used in promoting Cyprus as a safe and fine-quality tourism destination, thus helping to improve the country’s economic status, especially at present when the country is experiencing its worst-ever financial crisis following the collapse of its banking system at the end of 2012 as a result of which the country’s economy was ‘bailed in’ in March 2013 by the European Central Bank, the IMF and the World Bank. Even though, as indicated by other studies, locals associate tourists’ behaviour with antisocial, violent and drug-related crimes, there was not enough statistical evidence to support this. However, the study revealed that tourists seem to commit more serious crimes, reinforcing a negative image.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Total crime Total crime - without tourists


As criminologists would have predicted, younger male tourists aged 21-30 years committed both more offences and more serious ones and, also, regional variations by administrative district in crime rates were found. Based on the study’s findings a complete profile of the tourist offender in Cyprus in terms of the location and the offence is highlighted. This knowledge can be used by the agencies concerned - police, government and tourist organisations - in creating and implementing an effective tourism development plan that would reduce criminal offending by tourists and its negative consequences. Failure to do so means there would be a risk that tourist resorts suffering from bad reputation as high-crime ones, may well suffer economically with dire consequences for the country’s economy which relies largely on tourism. It should be pointed out that, as the findings were obtained based on the case of Cyprus, one cannot generalise them to other countries. It is hoped that the originality of this project as far as Cyprus is concerned will stimulate future research. In order to obtain a holistic view of the impact of tourism on crime and the involvement of tourists in crime, it is particularly recommended that crimes in which the victim is a tourist be examined. Only then will a complete picture of tourism and crime be possible, especially if such research also addresses the issue of the dark figure of criminal offending and victimization by tourists and locals alike. No single study can ask all the relevant research questions let alone answer them. Despite its limitations, the study reported has laid to rest the belief by locals that tourists contribute disproportionately to criminal offending in Cyprus.

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Inbound Tourguides’Perceptions about the

Requirements of Tourism Students of English

Language Competence for the Internships in

Thailand


Language Department, Faculty Management Science, Silpakorn University Petchburi IT Campus, Thailand

EUCHET SUYANUNE

Freelance Researcher

ABSTRACT

English language has been playing a pivotal role as medium of communication for Tourism industries in Thailand. Thus, At Tertiary studies, the English language courses for Tourism students regarded as English for Specific Purposes (ESP) have been attentively attempted to serve the standards for Tourism workforces. The research aimed to identify the requirements of English language skills as well as associated English language competencies of Tourism students to be prepared for the internships in relation to the Inbound Tours in Thailand. This qualitative research applied In-depth interview with 5 qualified Tour guides to seek insightful information and attitudes towards the English language usages for inbound Tour Guides and focus groups with 10 Tourism students who experienced and participated in the internships. The study adopted Luka’s model for the development of tourism students’ ESP competence (2004) to pinpoint the students’ English language competence and related skills for Tourism students for the internships. The results of this study found that the English courses for Tourism studies have been misleadingly emphasized on English language skills. Communicative competence was found to be inadequate in practices. In addition, Intercultural competence and Professional activity competence that needed for the specific trainings for inbound tourism businesses were seriously deficiency in the English language preparation courses. Therefore, it is significant to highlight on the blind spots of English preparation courses and insufficient skills that occurred when training for the internships and revise the content and activities in the English courses to be able to work effectively through the internships for inbound Tours. Key words: Inbound Tourism, Tour guides, ESP competence, Internships INTRODUCTION English language has been manifestly continuing its implication towards Thai Education and Thai tourism Industries (Simpson, 2011, Foley, 2005, Diethelm Travel 2006, Todd, 2006). For Undergraduate Programs in Thailand, students are required to take the general English courses and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses in relation to their specialized areas of study (Darasawang, 2007, Sanguanngarm, 2011). Regarding to ESP courses, tourism is one of the most extensively taught curriculums in Thai universities (Sinhaneti, 1994). Particularly, Tour Guidance is a practical work which involves language skills in order to facilitate the professionals work with confidence. Each skill of English which may be required of different value in terms of their use in that specific field in order to enable students function effectively in their workplaces and academic environment (Ekici, 2003). To gain and develop appropriate knowledge and skills through English, the students’ command of the English language must reach an acceptable level in their specialist subject studies. Students, who have studied ESP during their universities years, would facilitate them to adjust to their work conditions and would be easily employed in their fields (Bracaj, 2014). Nonetheless, the study by Boonyavatana


(2000) disclosed that personnel in the tourism industry confronted with listening and speaking in English in a way that was inadequate for their employment. Moreover, Wiriyachittra’s research discovered that Thai graduates who involve in the tourism industry have insufficient English language proficiency. This has led to fail to serve the demand for English in the workplace (Sanguanngarm et al, 2011), particularly in the hospitality sector and incline to give foreign tourist a negative attitude towards Thailand (Wiritachittra, 2002).

As stated earlier, ESP courses for University students involve English language skills and specific content integration. Davis (1993) declares that students perform best when the level of English is slightly above their current competence level in their field of study. However, Thai ESP students have lowers both English skills and knowledge (Noom-ura, 2013). Furthermore, Fredrickson (2003) continues that the level of English proficiency of Thai university graduate was surprisingly low. Similarly to the result of the study by Suwanarak and Phothongsunun (2009), half of undergraduate students participating in their study claimed that they were unable to use English to communicate in real situations as they were weak especially in listening and speaking skills. Accordingly, with low English language proficiencies, students inevitably faced learning difficulties when continuing ESP courses. And these consequently hampered teaching and establishing ESP courses. Even though many researches have been revealed that the failure of Thai Tourism graduates with low English language proficiency negate to meet the demand for English in the workplace, other researchers raised some problematic issues relating to teaching in ESP courses (Barjesteh & Shakeri 2013). With constraints of English teachers, teaching specialized content (Wu & Badger, 2009, Hyland, 2002), lack of cooperation with content teachers (Dudley Evan & St John, 1998, Helsvig & Kolegija, 2001) and inappropriate textbooks (Sierocka, 2008; Jones, 1990; Ahmadi & Bajelani, 2012) became major challenges to develop the ESP courses. Referring to the ESP courses as supporting students to use a foreign language as the main communications means in communicating and cooperating with foreign partners in the professional field and real-life situations, teaching/learning ESP is believed to be specialty-oriented as it is submitted to specific (professional) needs of the students (Helsvig & Kolegija, 2001). On the other hand, Morrow (2013) proposed an example of his research in a case of ESP courses of a Thai’s neighbour country, Cambodia that very few schools offer true to life communication training specifically for tourism. Hence, the people who have key roles in the education and preparation of the Tourism Operators have to be prepared for these new exigencies, with a language which will help all to share knowledge, to communicate and to make tourism an even greater source of enjoyment, of cultural sharing and ultimately profitable for all concerned (Nogueira, 2008). Consequently, the ESP courses should be able to enhance students’ English proficiency with the linking of meaningful processes and activities to strengthen the English competence requirements of tourism personnel. Therefore, this research intended to perceive the English language skills and competences that essentially required for inbound Tour Guides. The results will continually allow the teachers and course designers expand the provision of

establishing the Tourism ESP courses that should be prepared for Tourism student trainees for internships as Inbound Tour job requirements. ESP Competence for Tourism Specialists To conceptualize and classify the required competencies for Tourism students, the research adopted the Luka’s model of the tourism students’ ESP competence which has been identified by Luka (2004) to pinpoint the essential competencies in ESP courses for tourism students. This embraces three core competences: Communicative competence (Hymes 1972; Savignon, 1972; Widdowson, 1983; Canale 1983; Bachman and Palmer, 1996), Intercultural competence (Ruben, 1976; Risager 2007) and Professional competence (Fallows & Steven, 2000) with coalition to each of sub-competence that associated with actual action and students’ experiences.


Figure 1: ESP competence for tourism specialists

Lūka, I. (2004), Development of Students’ ESP Competence in Tertiary, The paper presented at the International bilingual conference “Assessing language and (inter-)cultural competences in Higher Education” in Finland, the University of Turku, 30.-31 August, 2007, retrieved from http://www.mig-

komm.eu/system/files/Language_competence.pdf This framework allowed the researcher to gain information about the perceptive viewpoints of the roles of inbound guides, English usages for actual practices, necessary English skills and correlated other skills that qualified for the inbound tour guide characters as well as limitations and deficiencies in the ESP courses for supporting student trainees. These enable the researcher to draw the widen pictures for preparing students to be successful in the studies and practices in applying English language usages and Tourism knowledge necessities for the inbound tour guides’ roles. Methodology This study was a qualitative research. The data generation applied the in-depth interviews with 5 inbound Tour guides of the Private companies, a governmental organization and freelance Tour Guides to identify the essential English skills and usages in real practices and varied situations, their perspectives in terms of the initial competencies and possibility to develop the ESP courses in relation to plan the courses to facilitate student trainees for internships. The research also adopted focus groups with 10 Tourism Management student trainees of Faculty of Management Science who experienced and participated in the inbound tour activities to identify the difficulties occurred during the trainings and English skills’ deficiencies for internships. The researchers used triangulation theory to check the reliability of information to collect data in a consistent way by performing completeness checks of the information. The collected data was divided into topics and subtopics in relation to Luka’s model (2004). The data and significant information were recorded and all the data had been examined and analysed to identify the research results on the subject of the requirements of English skills for Inbound Tour Guides and distinguish the importance of each competence for ESP Tourism specialists. Findings English skills for Inbound Tour Guides

One of the focal objectives of this study was to ascertain the English skills’ requirements for inbound Tour Guides. According to the results of this matter, all participants agreed that listening skills became the most needed among all four skills of English for the inbound Tour activities that should be prepared for the internships. They continued that in practices they initially listened to the international tourists to justify the mediated ways to apply their English language skills to suit each group of tourist for the effective communication. However, the data from the focus groups with student trainees identified the difficulties when listened to the international tourists who communicated by using varieties of English. They claimed that in classes of the English courses, they were normally introduced to the lessons and practices based on the American or British usages. As a result, listening to different varieties of English of the international tourists


found to be challenging and time-consuming for communication. In association with listening skill, speaking skill was similarly regarded as an inevitable usage for inbound tour activities. The tour guides disclosed that communicating with the tourists; giving information and explanations of the attractions by using English speaking skills were the major roles of the inbound tour guides. With less preparations and intensive practices, the student trainees viewed that they were unable to communicate with fluency English and led to be unconfident. On the other hand, reading and writing skills found to be the minimum usages of English skills in the actual practices for the inbound tour activities. The tour guides claimed that reading and writing skills generally used in the Travel agent offices or indoor activities which were differently focused for the outdoor activities of the inbound tours. All students also evaluated that these skills were too much emphasized on the English courses which they rarely applied for the outdoor activities. This linked to the perspectives of all Tour guide participants of increasing listening and speaking activities. They recommended that there should be offering more listening and speaking tasks in the English courses, supporting learning activities to serve the requirements of the inbound tour activities and contributing additional English courses for the internships in particular fields of tourism. It is clear that English skills for Tourism ESP courses have been less emphasized on the authentic skill usages. Listening and speaking skills for tourism ESP courses were found to be inadequate for learning activities. Accordingly, ESP courses were indicated the lacks of the appropriate establishing tasks and activities for the oriented internship courses to increase the proficiency of listening and speaking skills.

4.2 ESP competence for Tourism Students

The research adopted Luka’s model (2004) of ESP competence for Tourism specialists to identify the required competences that were considered to be prepared for student trainees for the roles of inbound Tour guides. The model specified that the ESP competence in relation to Tourism specialists includes three core competences; Communicative competence, Intercultural competence and Professional activity competence incorporating with action and experience. 4.2.1 Communicative competence In relation to the Communicative competence, the result indicated each sub competence was necessary towards being the roles of the inbound tour guides. The tour guide participants agreed that for the imperative roles of Inbound Tour Guides, all sub communicative competence need to be integrated in real practices but each sub competence played varied degrees of usages depending on the purposes and activities. Referring to Grammatical competence, there was no requirement of using complicated sentences or advanced vocabulary for general conversations, giving information and explanations. To inform the tourists with the clear pronunciations and precise meanings were viewed as the most important components of grammatical competence. However, most of the tour guide participants proposed

that this would be effective if a person in this role could deliver the messages with the accurate English sentence structures and language rules. For Pragmatic competence, the interview data disclosed that most of the tourists preferred listening to the smooth and clear conversations or explanations for continuity of communication. For the types of English usage, tour guides required to link the sets of vocabulary for particular topics of talks and explanations such as attractions, arts and crafts, Thai architectures, cultures, foods, lifestyles, and so forth. Thus, knowing the sets of English vocabulary, selecting the accurate sets of vocabulary and implementing to the correct context and purposes of usage were needed to be taken into account. In terms of Discourse competence, varied nationalities of tourists became unexpected and they were amalgamated in some groups of sightseeing program tours. According to the interviews about this topic, tour guides highlighted that they communicated with the tourists in different ways but all communications and interactions must be based on politeness. As one interesting case of a tour guide from a private company, he raised an example of services for the senior British tourists; he had to express the sense of politeness and formality and they were satisfied when he attempted to select and use British English to communicate with them while other tourists disregarded about the formality. As a result, being able to apply English language to suit texts, situations and tourists, could facilitate tour guides to works effectively in various situations and tourists. Relating to Sociolinguistic competence, explaining Thainess in English was an attractive and sophisticated ways with the general facts and information of presentation because most of tourists interested in the details of Thai cultures and how these show connections and differences from their cultural backgrounds. Also, as mentioned in the previous section about dealing with dissimilar accents of English of international tourists, tour guides needed to understand cultural differences and the cultural background among international tourists. Student trainees claimed these problems that when they could not understand or communicate with some nationalities, they requested the tourists to speak slowly or inform the tour guides to assist them. To understand other cultures and find the mediated way to interact with the tourists allowed tour guides to work without any conflict. And Strategic competence, both verbal and nonverbal communication were regarded as parts of effective communication for tourism activities. As Interacting with international tourists, most of the tour guides offered that they had to be aware of different meanings of nonverbal communication from varied culture backgrounds. One case of a tour guide from a governmental organization, she presented an example of using nonverbal communication that when pointing at something, the index finger should not be used but opening a palm hand instead. This allows the Tour Guides to present the awareness of being polite and sensitiv0065. Additionally, smiling presented welcoming for Thais, so before starting the tours, she introduced herself with welcoming facial expression to decrease the gaps and worries between tour guides and tourists. Most of the tour guides proposed to acknowledge student trainees about verbal and nonverbal perceptions. It is therefore being awareness of using strategic competence was considered as the crucial knowledge of tour guides.


4.2.2 Intercultural competence With Intercultural competence, attitude, declarative knowledge of cultural aspects and ability to operate in different cultural context were vital competencies for tourism specialists. The tour guide participants recommended that being qualified for Thai tour guides, they should be able to explain and present well in English about Thai culture in different aspects, having background knowledge of the histories, attractions and destinations. Furthermore, they should be able to deal with unexpected situations as well as being able to work with others who related to the tour activities. Student trainees emphasized that these sub competences were provided in the Tourism discipline courses rather ESP courses. However, the students were possible to develop these competences and skills along the period of participating in the internships rather than they expected to gain and develop these competences in ESP classes. Then again, ESP courses could build up students’ competences by setting related activities that support English usage integrating with building intercultural competence. 4.2.3 Professional activity Relating to Professional activity competence, Cognitive competence, Personal competence and technologically professional competence were relevant sub competences that were considered as essential competences for one who worked for tourism businesses. These sub skills seemed to be the final action of the integrated usages of grammatical competence and intercultural competence. Student trainees should not expect to develop these kinds of competence in the ESP courses. But the activities for English preparation courses needed to be reviewed to enable students to build self-development awareness and learner autonomy. Besides, students could increase these sub competences from actual experiences during the internships to gain more abilities and develop their personal performances. conclusionS The English preparation courses for the internships indicated insufficient focuses on the practices of Listening and speaking skills. Underlining on accuracy rather than fluency should be improved in the ESP courses. The lack of intercultural competence activities could be paying more attention when setting the tasks to link to the real situations. Furthermore, professional activity competence seemed to be disregarded in the ESP courses. Therefore, it is significant to highlight on the blind spots of English oriented courses to complement insufficient skills and competences that occurred when trainings and revise the content and activities in the ESP courses to prepare student trainees to work effectively through the internship programs in relation to inbound Tours. In addition, the English courses should be able to encourage students to develop their performances based on the realistic practices and authentic English usages for particular purposes.

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Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in the

Hotel Industry

MARIA KRAMBIA‐KAPARDIS

Department of Hotel and Tourism Management, Cyprus University of Technology

CHRISTINA NEOPHYTIDOU

Department of Hotel and Tourism Management, Cyprus University of Technology

ABSTRACT

Global trends in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) such as the welfare of employees and the shortage of natural resources, along with technological innovations have all resulted in a new set of stakeholder requirements. Stakeholders are nowadays demanding not only for sustainable products and/or services, but also require the corporations behind the brands they are consuming to offer greater transparency and reveal their accountability with regards to the way they carry out business. Consequently, to meet the needs of stakeholders, many corporations have already incorporated the sustainability discourse in their business strategies. More recently, corporations have started to publish sustainability reports, as a means of informing their stakeholders and shareholders about their organizations’ environmental and social performance. Previous studies within the hospitality sector, indeed confirm that hoteliers have already started to incorporate CSR and the reporting practise in their businesses, as they have documented an increase in sustainability reporting in the hotel sector over the past few years. Evidence suggests that by incorporating sustainability in their business strategies, hotels can decrease their operating costs, differentiate their product, and enhance their brands’ image. In addition, by drafting sustainability reports to comment upon these issues, hotels can attract more customers, provide better hospitality products, assist in the formation of sustainable tourism destinations, and improve their overall performance efficiency. The paper reaches the conclusion that sustainability reporting within the hotel sector will gain more momentum in the near future as it will become a valuable tool for gaining a competitive advantage. With this in mind, the purpose of the paper is to explore the notion of CSR within the hotel industry and to document the benefits derived by the reporting practise. For the purposes of the paper, the researchers will review existing literature in the field of CSR, sustainability and sustainability reporting in the hotel industry and retrieve data regarding the environmental and social performance from the hotels’ corporate websites. Key Words: corporate social responsibility, sustainability, sustainability reporting, hotel industry

INTRODUCTION

Global trends in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) such as

the welfare of employees and the shortage of natural resources, along with technological innovations have all resulted in a new set of stakeholder requirements. Stakeholders nowadays demand not only environmental protection and sustainable products and/or services, but also require businesses to offer


greater transparency and accountability with regards to the way they carry out business. As a result, in an effort to satisfy the demand for sustainability, many business organisations are changing the way they operate and create profits, whereas they are also publishing sustainability reports in order to inform both their shareholders and stakeholders regarding their organisations’ environmental and social performance. The hotel and tourism industry, being amongst the world’s fastest growing sectors (De Grosbois, 2012) with a 9% contribution to the global GDP, amounting to US $6.6 trillion (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2013 report) cannot afford to stay affluent upon the new stakeholder requirements. According to a Deloitte survey, 34 percent of the surveyed travellers are now seeking for environmentally friendly hotels (Deloitte, 2008 in Millar and Baloglu, 2011). Mindful of the stakeholder’s environmental concerns, hoteliers have started to incorporate responsible business practices into their businesses (Millar and Baloglu, 2011:302) whereas many hotel service providers have already committed in adopting the sustainability reporting practice in an effort to cover the demand for greater transparency (Dwyer, 2005; Assaf et al., 2012). With this in mind, the purpose of the paper is to explore the notion of CSR within the hotel industry and to document the benefits derived by the reporting practise. For the purposes of the paper, the researchers will review existing literature in the field of CSR, sustainability and sustainability reporting in the hotel industry and retrieve data regarding the environmental and social performance from the hotels’ corporate websites.

The need for sustainability

Corporate Social Responsibility

The notion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the responsible manner by which an organisation can showcase its commitment to carrying out business and its daily operations on an ethical basis. It provides a framework by which business organisations can do well financially by doing good socially and environmentally, and it includes “actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law” (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001:117). CSR actions mainly focus on the protection, conservation and restoration of the natural environment, the ethical treatment of employees and consumers, and the betterment of the society through community investment. With the awareness growing regarding the social and environmental consequences of business activity, stakeholders such as governments, NGOs, customers and the public are nowadays demanding businesses to implement responsible business practises (de Grosbois, 2012). As a result, over the last two decades, the notion of CSR has become the new way of doing business and has gained increased popularity, as it has been implemented by a plethora of business

organizations as a means of addressing their social and environmental responsibilities by adjusting their business practises to lessen their negative impact upon the environment and the wider society and positively contribute in the communities in which they operate. Over the past two decades, many terms have been devised in order to describe the multidimensional character of businesses which adopt ethical and sustainable behaviour towards their stakeholders and the wider society. Amongst the most popular terms for the social responsibility of businesses are: corporate sustainability, corporate citizenship and corporate environmental responsibility. Emphasizing on the broad scope of CSR, which goes beyond philanthropy to operating sustainably in all aspects of business activity, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has defined CSR as “the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life in the workforce and their families as well as the local community and society at large” (WBCSD, 1999: 3). However, as there are no hard laws on implementing CSR and no specific frameworks to evaluate it, the business organizations that go over and above their legal obligations on employing CSR tend to inform the public regarding their CSR initiatives through voluntary communication practises (de Grosbois, 2012). Thus, given the voluntary character of CSR, in the 2001 Green book published by the EU Commission, CSR was defined as “a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and their interactions with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis” by which they can create new opportunities and gain a competitive advantage. Sustainability in the hospitality industry

Whereas the business case for CSR by which businesses can create long term shareholder value through the better management of risks deriving from the economic, environmental and social conditions is still developing, the hospitality industry has started to firmly embrace the notion of sustainability. In the 1987 Brundtland report, sustainability was given a holistic and future oriented definition, defined as “a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987: 45). Business organisations are influenced by the systems surrounding them, which include the business, stakeholder and global environment, and they also have an influence on these systems themselves. As business organisations are inherent parts of social systems and ecosystems, they have an obligation to become more socially and environmentally responsible and contribute to sustainable development. Consequently, the underlying principle of sustainability, which is often referred to as the “Triple Bottom Line” is comprised by three pillars or the “3 E’s” Environment, Equity, and Economics which are seen as equal pillars in becoming a good corporate citizen. According to Assaf et al. (2012: 596), the Triple


Bottom Line “reflects the firm’s commitment to create financial, social and environmental values” on a balanced basis. Many studies have proven a positive correlation between CSR and sustainability with profitability. Consequently, by addressing environmental and social impacts in a systematic way, even more hotel service providers could in fact be taking a leap towards corporate sustainability. According to an MIT study two thirds out of the 4000 survey manager respondents said that sustainability is necessary to being competitive in today’s marketplace (MIT, 2012). Although the benefits from operating in a sustainable manner are mainly intangible, (ie. Competitive advantage, enhanced brand reputation, product/services innovation), business organisations are profiting from sustainability activities. Realising the potential benefits and having acknowledged the notion that the relevant stakeholders for their businesses are not only their customers and their shareholders, but also the external society and the natural environment, a growing number of hotel service providers nowadays choose to implement the sustainability discourse in their business strategies. Sustainability reporting and its value

According to Morsing (2006:171), CSR communication is defined as the “communication that is designed and distributed by the company itself about its CSR efforts” and can be distributed through sustainability reports, advertising campaigns, the media, or the Internet (De Grosbois, 2012). A lot of studies in the field of sustainability have proved that businesses who manage sustainability issues are financially more successful (Gaggl, 2013). However, in order for consumers and stakeholders to be informed about the sustainability efforts of businesses, companies should publish their sustainability performance. Gaggl, (2013) notes that , by drafting annual sustainability reports to comment on such issues, business organisations can enjoy:

a) enhanced reputation and brand image for being more transparent in the provision of non-financial information

b) better client relationships as the embedment of sustainability in all aspect of business will essentially stimulate innovation which in turn will create new products and/or services and reach new markets

c) better investors/stakeholders relationships as they will be provided with holistic information that will create long term value for the business

Enhanced reputation for being a ‘good’ employer, thus, expectations for employees will have high-potentials thereby attracting top of the line staff.

The Importance of Sustainability Reporting in the Hotel Industry

Businesses are recognizing the increasing need of sustainability reporting due to pressure exerted by stakeholders and consumers Existing research has established that stakeholders are increasingly seeking for greater information and transparency from the corporations behind the brands, services and products they consume (De Grosbois, 2012). Consequently, as the provision of financial information is not enough anymore to embrace all value drivers, CSR communication and sustainability reporting has been gaining momentum. Being a significant sector within the tourism industry, the hotel industry has a crucial role in contributing to sustainability. Although being a huge provider of social and economic benefits, the industry has a severe impact on the natural environment. Thus, due to the impact of hotels upon the environment with regards to resource consumption, the United Nations Agenda 21 includes a chapter that focuses on sustainable tourism, and has provided the industry with a comprehensive blueprint for action to be undertaken on a global scale (Division for Sustainable Development 1997 in Hsieh 2012). Agenda 21, encourages business organisations “to report annually on their environmental records, as well as on their use of energy and natural resources” (United Nations, 1992). As a result, a plethora of guidelines and standards (ie., EMAS, ISO 50001, ISO26000, GRI) have been developed, all aiming to assist organizations, including hotels, in reporting their performances while minimising their environmental footprint. A study by PwC asserts that over a dozen major hotel operators, including Four Seasons, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott, Taj and Starwood, are now employing green initiatives to assist them in reaching the minimum standards for a sustainable hotel (PwC, 2008). Given the fact that previous studies have proven that sustainability reporting has a significant impact on hotel performance (Assaf et al., 2012), the move towards sustainability reporting is justified by the hotel’s need to generate economic welfare and increased profits. However, a crucial differentiation factor for hotels to enable them to derive all the benefits from operating in a sustainable manner lies on how well they communicate their sustainability efforts. Epstein (2008) stated that in addition to the financial reports, the hotel industry must also provide communication with regards to their environmental commitment, whereas, Charkham (2005) noted that adequate flow of information is crucial for businesses’ to be able to reveal their commitment to sustainability. One way of making sure that the sustainability report fully addresses the stakeholder concerns is to base the report on the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy, its different pillars and the corresponding action plans for each pillar. Through this process, there is consistency between strategy, actions and performance measurement and companies are able to focus resources on the most important issues for tracking, reporting, and improvement initiatives (Ioannou, 2012).


The rise of the green traveller

The rising ethical concerns regarding the effect that modern consumption has on the environment, the increased attention that environmental and social issues receive from the mainstream media, along with the ever-increasing availability of ethical products and services, have triggered the awareness of consumers regarding the impacts of their purchasing behaviour (Carrigan and Attalla, 2001; Connolly and Shaw, 2006; Crane and Matten, 2004). According to a study by Vora (2007), 43 million U.S. travellers expressed environmental concerns whereas the 2008 National Leisure Travel Monitor survey also found that 85 percent of leisure travellers consider themselves as environmentally conscious (Crocker 2008 in Millar and Baloglu, 2011). In addition to that, the Travel Foundation found that only 4 per cent of UK holidaymakers would choose a five-star hotel rather than a four-star hotel with better sustainability performance (Travel Foundation in PwC, 2008). Therefore, due to the fact that “tourists have become increasingly demanding”, they “force hoteliers to adapt to their new tastes and preferences, including greater respect towards the environment” (Molina-Azorin et al. 2009: 517). Consequently, by incorporating sustainability in their business strategies, hotels are likely to improve their guests’ perceptions regarding the environmental quality of the hotel and the tourism product they offer, thereby obtaining differentiation from competitors (Molina-Azorin et al., 2009; Chan and Wong, 2006; Kirk, 1998). A study by Travelocity, has found that 80 per cent of travellers would be willing to pay extra so they can visit an eco-friendly destination (Travelocity in PwC, 2008). As a result of the increasing stakeholder demand for sustainability and the considerable interest in social and environmental performance information, many hoteliers are nowadays publicly reporting their social and environmental performance and financial outcomes (Jose and Lee, 2007; Hsieh, 2012). Many hotel websites are becoming an electronic platform to disseminate this kind of information and reach stakeholders quickly and at little cost. By responding to the public’s demand for sustainability and accountability hotels can develop a positive image, increase employee loyalty while also attract and retain customers. One can therefore say that the driving force behind the hotels’ decision to incorporate sustainability and report accountability is the rise of the green traveller. Reporting creates value for the hotel industry

Legrand et al. (2012a) stated that the main objectives behind the incorporation of sustainability in the business strategy of hotels are the decrease of operating costs and the building of a positive brand image. While the hotel industry is neither responsible for severely polluting the environment, nor is accountable for consuming vast amounts of non-renewable resources, the industry has a significant effect upon the use of global resources (Kirk, 1995; Chan and Wong, 2006). The vast consumption of energy and water, along with the use of consumable products and the generation of solid and hazardous waste, all have a significant impact on the environment. The costs associated with these impacts are

great, thus, hotel service providers have reduced revenues, increased operating and employee costs. However, through the use of strategic sustainability and reporting, businesses can track their footprint, minimize risks and increase their opportunities thereby reducing their costs and enhance their value. This is supported by Willy Legrand who found that 74 per cent of hotels are now investing in energy savings to reduce costs (Legrand in The Guardian, 2013). International hotel chains are nowadays making CSR the centrepiece of their business strategies, underpinning environmental and social concerns within corporate decision-making. For instance, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (2009) see CSR as “a way of living, working and playing that embodies our vision and values, celebrates our diversity and supports a balance of professional and personal needs”. By reporting their environmental performance and by communicating the initiatives and objectives of their CSR strategies, businesses in the hotel industry cannot only reach the niche market segment of green travelers, but they can also reinforce the atmosphere of partnership and fair treatment within the industry (Bohdanowicz et al. 2011). As a result, hotels have the opportunity to enhance their employees’ job satisfaction (Spector, 1997) and organisational commitment, while also attract and retain skillful employees, thereby creating long-term value for their organisations. Reporting creates value to the destination

The hotel industry has a vested interest in protecting the environment as its success heavily depends on the attractiveness of its natural surroundings (Chan and Wong, 2006). Since many hotels are located in major cities and are often located near cultural or natural heritage sites, by attracting travellers they impose an ecological footprint (Kirk, 1995). However, given that an unspoilt environment is a vital for the attractiveness of any tourist destination, hotels must ensure the long-term environmental sustainability of tourist activity. Thus, by adopting sustainable business practices and by reporting their footprint, hotels can monitor their performance; reduce their impact upon the environment across the value chain, thereby assisting destinations to become more sustainable. The World Tourism Organization (1981) has defined sustainable tourism as “tourism which leads to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be filled while maintaining cultural integrity, essentials ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems”. Given the fact that the ultimate goal of the hospitality industry is to shift unsustainable tourism development to a more favoured position hotels are nowadays choosing to report their footprint impact next to their financial results. A report by the United Nations Environment Program (2011) has identified tourism to be amongst the ten economic sectors which are the driving force behind the transition to a green economy, which aims to reduce environmental risks and ecological scarcities and increase human well-being and social equity. By reporting on the triple bottom line, the hotel industry can measure and monitor the economic, social and environmental impacts generated by tourism. The


OECD’s Toward Green Growth report (2012) suggests that market instruments, such as sustainability reporting, boost green innovation and address the externalities associated with environmental challenges. Through the reporting practice, hotels can adopt and develop green innovations which will enhance their resource efficiency and lower the costs of addressing environmental challenges. Measuring thus a destination’s footprint, will in turn result in the development of a decision-making framework aiming to achieve sustainable development in any given destination. As a result, by reporting sustainability, hotels and other facilities in the hospitality value chain can create value to the destination itself.

ConclusionS

The rise of CSR, which suggests that business should become more sustainable by minimising their environmental impact and more accountable towards their stakeholders, is confirmed by the fact that nearly all international companies have CSR policies in place (Franklin, 2008). Being amongst the world’s fastest growing sectors (de Grosbois, 2012) and given that the conservation of natural surroundings is a vital factor for their success, the hotel industry could not afford to stay affluent upon these new demands. Thus, after having acknowledged the value of the sustainability discourse in the corporate strategies of business organisations world-wide, it is no surprise that several studies have indeed reported an increase in sustainability reporting throughout the hotel industry (Dwyer, 2005; Assaf et al. 2012; Legrand et al., 2012a; de Grosbois, 2012). In principle, hotels, have many viable opportunities to engage in environmental sustainability. The main drivers in adopting transparent business practices which focus on ethical values, social equity and environmental conservation, are the growing stakeholders’ demands, the decrease of operating costs, the differentiation of products and the enhancement of the brands’ image. As a result, issues pertaining the implementation and reporting of sustainability are very relevant, timely and critical for the sustainability of the tourism industry (de Grosbois, 2012) in the critical financial times most countries are experiencing Due to the higher-than-normal consumption of resources and the negative impact upon the environment, hotels have strong economic incentives to employ sustainable business strategies and to communicate their environmental performance to both their shareholders and stakeholders. By drafting sustainability reports, hotels can offer greater transparency and reveal their accountability through their environmental and social performance results. In addition to that, the effort to report can promote and create value not only for businesses in the hotels sector, but also for the destination itself, as it will lead to increased tourism innovation and therefore better hospitality products. It is therefore suggested that the sustainability reporting practise in the hotel industry will grow even more in the near future and will become a valuable tool for hotels worldwide for gaining a competitive advantage and improving performance levels.

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Recommunication Process of Approach of the

Municipal Cultural and Public Benefit Enterprise

of Karditsa‐Greece (DI.K.Ε.Κ.) with the Cultural

Common

LABROS SDROLIAS

Dept. of Business Administration, Technological Education Institute of Thessaly, Larissa – Greece

SPYRIDON BINIORIS

Dept. of Business Administration, Technological Education Institute of Athens, Aegaleo – Greece

GEORGIOS ASPRIDIS


NIKOLAOS KAKKOS


Abstract

The effective understanding and the implementation of the cultural policy of every state offers a guarantee for creating a series of remarkable cultural products and upgraded cultural contributions thus affording them an added cultural and comparative value at national and international level. It is well known nowadays that the democratization of culture and art dominate, advocating increased participation of individuals and groups in production and consumption. In particularly, the key challenge is to attract the interest of the public, claiming his support and conveying the produced cultural ideas in extended social groups. However, in the Greek reality it is found that the existing structure of the structures of culture, institutions exercising cultural policy, the available resources and the need for action and survival in a demanding and competitive cultural environment, necessitate a generalized structural restructuring of existing cultural institutions assisted by a cooperative mood of all creative and management factors and actors, but also communicative approach as the cultural "consumer" audience for the best promotion of expressions of culture.

Also particularly problematic was the latest situation on a local level with the direct effect of lowering the importance and quality of cultural goods produced. Although several Local Authorities, as they are important partners in the cultural scene, have created remarkable cultural centers, most of them are showing a communication gap management, resulting in the cultural product supplied to appear weak to attract public attention. Without an exception to the rule, a similar situation is currently one of the leading companies’ once cultural and social characters, the Municipal Cultural and Public Benefit Enterprise of Karditsa (DI.K.Ε.Κ.).

Given the above problems the aim of this paper is, through a theoretical and research approach, to investigate and determine the extent of the communication gap between itself and the culture of the public in combination with the causes of appearance, and to propose strategies and procedures for improving this situation by developing an effective system for cultural communication with the people and stabilize it, i.e. connecting link between this cultural unit (the transmitter) and the public (as a receiver) at local and regional level.

Keywords : Cultural Enterprises, Cultural Communication, Communication Strategy, Cultural Common, Local and Regional Cultural Development

1. Introduction

The effective understanding and implementation of cultural policy on the part of every nation, provides the necessary prerequisites and conditions for the creation of a series of considerable cultural centers with products and upgraded cultural action as well as contribution, which in turn offer an increasing cultural timeless and comparative value on a local, domestic and international level (Paschalidis, 2002a:225-229). However, in greek reality it is clearly observed,


through time lapse, that the existing outline of the cultural structures, of the bodies exercising cultural strategy and policy, the available means and resources, as well as the need for action and survival in a demanding and competitive cultural environment, necessitate, on one the one hand a generalized and dynamic, organizing, functional and productive re-design of the existing cultural institutions and organizations, assisted by a cooperative perception of all the creative and managerial bodies, for the best promotion of the aspects of culture in all geographical levels, in every latitude and longitude possible (Chambouri-Ioannidou, 2002a:18-21; Chambouri-Ioannidou, 2003: 27-29) and on the other hand the ongoing choice and development of certain poles (elements) of local and regional activation which will develop a net of cultural events of a permanent character, which will in turn constitute an attraction (Filias,1988:266).

Given that nowadays globalization and the democratization of culture and art, which reflect the increased individual and collective participation in its production and consumption, dominate, what is primarily aimed at is to attract the interest of the public, to claim the limited time, energy and support and to transmit the produced cultural notions to wider social groups, since it is essential that we detach from a limited, sophisticated elitist perception of offering and indulging in cultural goods, without social discriminations as far as approaching and consuming is concerned (Bryant, 1988; Klamer, 1996; Streeten, 2006; Kakkou, 2009).

Although several Local Government Organizations, as important factors on the cultural scene, have created significant cultural centers, their majority displays a managerial gap, resulting in qualitatively downgrading the produced and consequently offered cultural product weakening its ability to attract the interest of the “consumer” audience (Klamer, 1996; Chambouri-Ioannidou, 2002a:22; Belias et al, 2014a:451-452; Belias et al, 2014b). The situation deteriorates undoubtedly due to the weakness of the local cultural action to provide alternative, innovative and competitive forms of cultural events, or by often attempting enterprises which lack a complete and long-term speculation and prospect. Without being an exception to the rule, in a similar situation has been over the last few years one of the once leading companies of cultural and social character, the Municipal Cultural and Public Benefit Enterprise of Karditsa (DI.K.Ε.Κ.).

DI.K.E.K was founded (initially under the name D.Ε.Τ.Α.Κ.-Municipal Enterprise of Tourism and Recreation of Karditsa) in 1990 based on the town of Karditsa (G.G 298/4-5-90 : 4585-4586) after the decision – suggestion of the Municipal Council. It is a legal person governed by private law (N.P.I.D), the function of which is regulated by special provisions (articles) of the Municipal and Regional Code (Presidential Decree 323/1989). After a series of amending decisions towards the end of 2006 it conformed to its obligatory operation under the new Municipal and Regional Code, as specified in the paragraph about the set up and operation of local government organizations, where it is clearly stated that the allowed form of Municipal enterprises is that of either Municipal Benefit Enterprise or of Local Government Organization S.A (GG114/8-6-2006, 1213-1216), and where the final profile both of its main and individual goals was outlined and specified.

It is still -to date- an important cultural and social body of the Municipality of Karditsa, aiming at the promotion of activities of cultural creativity and development as well as of social policy, as aspects of the town’s cultural being. Nevertheless, the strongly competitive conditions of the cultural surroundings in which it operates, the lack of satisfying and regular financial support by the state and the local entities of jurisdiction, along with its close dependence upon the given municipal authority which makes various decisions by the preference of the occasional principal, compose an organizational and productive background with bureaucratic features, handicapped in setting achievable goals, suffering from the lack of dynamic strategic decisions and plans for action, activity failure and deviations from the consumer audience’s expectations, resulting in DIΚ.Ε.Κ displaying a severe deficit in cultural communication and in offering cultural work, thus expressing this deficit through an extended level of communicational introversion, springing from the lack of information exchange with the public, concerning its cultural and social needs and preferences.

Given the references above, the aim of this paper is, through a theoretical and research approach, to develop a communicative model that will contribute to a more fruitful realization and gauging of the assessment of cultural communication of the particular cultural body with the consumer audience of Karditsa and the wider area. On the basis then of the afore–mentioned model, through an analysis of its main parts, the value of the produced and offered cultural product can be better estimated by the cultural “consumers” of the narrow and wider area of Karditsa themselves, so that through regular communicative feedback both a steady added value on the provided cultural product and the development of strong resistance skills against what makes it vulnerable can be ensured.

Through these efforts it is expected that the profile of D.I.K.E.K. will be fully promoted, creating a sense of unity and focused direction towards cultural action, which will allow it to overcome the current organizational and productive difficulties and be led to a continuous flow and production of high quality cultural works. Thus the assurance towards an effective and ongoing process of solving the arising social problems and towards satisfying the local cultural needs becomes plausible, the strong discrepancies which create an atmosphere of tension and disappointment decrease, dialogue and trust on the part of the public, followed by participation in the cultural events, are reinforced (Klamer, 1996; Paschalidis, 2002a:47-52; Chambouri-Ioannidou, 2002b:80; Ekonomou, 2003:92-93).

2. Methodological Approach

2.1 Cultural Communication

Communication is a complex and necessary process of information or message transmission and understanding. Its main goal is to build a common linking device between two or more persons for the exchange of information, ideas, views .emotions, etc (Κoontz et al, 1983b:126; Varner, 2000). If the notion of human communication functions in many cases somehow restrictively, the notion of cultural communication acts as an organized activity which refers to a wider


bipolar frame of a communicative relationship between the cultural unit on the one side and the cultural audience on the other, aiming not exclusively at promoting the cultural products to the audience, but mainly at creating a network of essential contact with it, including as many of its groups as possible (Athanasopoulou, 2003:116).

This kind of relationship is mutual and clearly interactive and refers to the human wish to confront the individual cultural unit so as to specify its readiness and efficiency in producing and providing cultural products and the frequency and the means of providing them, which acts as a way to satisfy its cultural needs (Hein, 2006), while the unit itself seen as a “cultural agent” is expected to build a network of communication and message and information exchange with the audience, to search for the audience’s cultural needs, for its awareness and willingness for a creative intervention through its ideas and suggestions on the designing, managerial and informative process of the cultural product (Κastoras, 2002; Athanasopoulou, 2002; Athanasopoulou, 2003).

2.2 The process of cultural communication

The process of cultural communication has to do with the fundamentally well known communicative model. The adaptation of such a model on the features of the communicative environment of DI.Κ.Ε.Κ and its detailed analysis was considered necessary for the specification of the relationship and the degree of its cultural communication with its consumer audience. The use of questionnaires and interviews41 was considered to be the most supportive tool for getting the

41The amount and range of the problems under research concerning the productive outcome of DI.K.EK, create a situation for which in terms of research there is no empirical approach to the whole issue through hypotheses testing and in general characterized by the inflexible features of the Positivist Approach (Siomkos et al, 2005 : 22;Gantzias: 8-10). In the case of such characteristics, for the detailed inquisition and effective approach to the whole problematic situation, what is suggested is the direct specification of the various problems as they are observed through the resarcher’s in situ observation and general reports accompanied by the support of data from the use of international biography, interviews and questionnaires from all parties involved in this cultural institution. Therefore, the methodological approach to the subject of this paper is carried out on the basis of an Exploratory Study and aims at the development of knowledge in terms of an analytical and integrative process of the organizational and productive structuring of organizations like DI.K.E.K, which have some special features (Kosiol, 1962; Sdrolias, 1991). The research was carried out with the use of a questionnaire. The questions were mainly scaled questions (the seven grade Likert scale was used), while some of them were dichotomic and some others were multiple choice questions. The distribution, completion, and collection of the questionnaires took place from 14 to 22 March 2009. 180 questionnaires were distributed in different times and places in Karditsa city with the method of personal interview (intercept interview) and they were filled in by 142 persons , from which 9 questionnaires were incomplete .Therefore, the final sample of the fully completed questionnaires was 131. The process of data processing was carried out with the help of the statistic package SPSS16 (Siomkos et al, 2005; Howitt et al, 2006), and particularly with the method of descriptive statistics, where its main tools were primarily used, namely Mean, Std

assessment of this communication evaluated by the consumer audience in Karditsa and the surrounding area. Based on the form which the afore mentioned model takes, one can –through an analysis of its main parts- conclude the following (Sdrolias, 1992; Kakkou, 2009; Wöhe, 2013) (Figure 1) :

The cultural communication of DI.Κ.Ε.Κ takes place in a framework mainly characterized by the quality of the involved parties, by the size, the quality and the value of the provided cultural product. The cultural environment, under the given at times predominant conditions, sustains and affects significantly this process. For the on the whole assessment of the level of the provided cultural communication, the most valid judge is the “consumer” audience itself, which takes parts in the process as the second agent of the communicative relationship. In the question to the audience “How do you evaluate, in total, the communication of DI.Κ.Ε.Κ with the consumer audience of the area in which it acts?”, the audience (n=131) presented with its answers a “not so good communicative relationship” (mean=3,15 και Std Deviation=1,389). Moreover, a significant percentage of the persons asked (cumulative percent : 62,3%) fluctuated in the span from “very bad ” to “not so good communicative relationship” .The audience’s total attitude is presented in the form of the following bar chart (Bar chart 1) .

In this communicative environment one of the basic agents, the transmitter, is DI.K.E.K itself as a cultural unit responsible for the specification not only of the current but also of the future ways of action on a cultural and social level, as well as of the communicative techniques for the transmission of its cultural products. What is researched however is from the one hand the extent to which during its effort, DI.K.E.K manages to measure the needs of the audience it addresses and from the other what is the final degree of satisfaction.

Deviation, Frequencies-Percent, after it was first realized that the reliability coefficient Cronbach’s of the scales that were used to measure the multifaceted notion of cultural product is 0,879, higher than 0,700, which is the normal questionnaire limit (Bishop et al, 2007; Hair et al., 2010). For a better presentation of the results of the process , the processing and the drawing of relevant conclusions a bar chart was also used Finally, in the whole process of the Research Approach a series of interviews addressed to the staff of DI.Κ.Ε.Κ took place as a means of capturing the indoor atmosphere, given the clear unwillingness and hesitation of the temporary staff towards their participation in the process of questionnaire filling. The main reasons for this attitude are claimed to be the sense of insecurity concerning the future of their employment relationship, the recurring recent payment default along with the potential of a mandatory relocation to a lower employment position.


com3

very goodgoodnot so badnot good, not badnot so goodbadvery bad

Perc

en

t

30

20

10

0

com3

Bar chart 1: Visualized presentation of the assessment, on the part of the audience,

of DI.Κ.Ε.Κ.’s cultural communication

Data collection is discouraging and concordant with our personal initial presuppositions about DI.K.E.K as a communicatively introvert enterprise, since for the first part of the question concerning the frequency of collection of the audience’s opinion about the kind of the cultural and social activities, the answer is “seldom” (mean =1,69 and standard deviation=1,215). Besides, a percentage of 64% of the people asked, answered “never”. For the second part of the question concerning the extent to which their cultural and social needs are met, the participants answered “partly” (mean=3,16 and standard deviation=1,429) with a significant Cumulative Frequencies of 63,4% spanning from “not at all” to “partly”.

Within the dominant communicative environmental conditions of the existing communicative model, it is necessary to determine both the communicative frequency and the communicative means. Of special interest is the degree of direct communication between DI.K.E.K and the cultural audience, the frequency of which actually appears very rare (usually every two years) and has the form of debriefing reports. Hence, the phenomenon of partial or total citizen disinterest in the administration’s debriefing invitation (similar to that in February 2009) is commonly observed, so that, as an employee in the Municipal Cinema where this initiative took place, stated, “......only the first rows of the seats was full and those were taken by the Prefect, the Mayor and the Municipal councilors…They were speaking and listening by themselves”.

Concerning the kind of the most usual communicative means used by DI.K.E.K for the promotion of the provided cultural and social products, the public, in a percentage of 83,2% answered, as expected, that the main communicative means are the local mass media and Internet (mostly the mass media with 55,7%), and only a small part (16,8%) attributed its getting informed to friends or other random incidents. What needs special attention, is the assessment, on the part of the audience, of DI.K.E.K‘s basic communicative means, as it was depicted by the seven grade Likert scale. Its results were placed on low evaluation standards [the mean was 3,05 (in the case of internet), 3,62 [(in the case of advertising posts in the local mass media), and slightly more positive 3,67 (brochures and posters)], while it revealed serious weakness as far as the level of a direct and personal approach is concerned [2, 04 (phone call contact), 2,14 (open discussion) and 2,37 (questionnaire distribution)].

In the process of promoting its information and messages, DI.Κ.Ε.Κ appears to have a relative quantity of flow concerning the current and future aims and actions. On the question about whether this cultural enterprise takes care of the promotion of its cultural and social activities, the result of the questions answered gave mean=3,57, which presents an almost neutral estimation on the part of the audience. Even if we accept that the wide consumer audience doesn’t always receive such messages, deliberately or not, this information becomes widely known and naturally causes reactions towards specific centers – receivers of those messages which act as disorder sources (e.g. minorities in the Municipal Council, local mass media, public placement of those directly involved with the citizens’ cultural affairs etc). As a result, in the cases of negative or hesitant attitude, some interferences arise which make its administration carry out a process of filtering the flowing messages, so that their volume is eliminated and focused on the most achievable and viable actions.


Figure 1: DI.Κ.Ε.Κ’s Communicative Model

The remaining -reduced by the filtering- information and message flows go through an encoding process , that is processing of their format and content so that DI.K.E.K’s messages alter the receiver’ s(cultural audience’s) behaviour, (Fiske,1992; Kastoras, 2002; Fiske,2011). At this point, a problem which raises concerns the processing of the messages addressed to the cultural audience which gave the choice “often” a higher percentage (26%) compared to the other choices (mean= 4,89 namely. “not so rare ” which moves towards the same direction),when asked to answer the question about how often it lacks

information about cultural and social actions , not on its own fault, but due to mistakes and omissions of DI.Κ.Ε.Κ. Itself. The more or less successful message encoding affects through a chain reaction the decoding process, the level and quality of which is directly linked to a wide range of personal social and psychological factors (educational level, social status, favorable or not attitude towards the principal’s political placement , financial status, professional activity, cultural refinement, culture ,which as has already been stated, has deep roots, thus raising great expectations, etc) which either predispose the audience positively towards the incoming messages, or contribute to its distancing itself from them , constituting another form of disorders source In direct contrast to the communicative dipole is DI.K.E.K’s cultural audience as a receiver of the former’s cultural information and messages, which is also partly responsible for the communicative dimension concerning DI.K.E.K and mainly for the way it operates. The correct decoding of the received messages, the audience’s positive or not response to them, along with the active participation in planning cultural actions , contributes both to information flow from the part of the receiver to the transmitter and the gentle function of the communicative process, which is disrupted and finally cancelled , when facing the cultural audience’s (receiver’s) unwillingness to participate and its distancing itself from the planning and the final creation of the cultural product.. A relevant question to the public about the frequency of making recommendations concerning the cultural and social action they suggest , 57,3% was answered negatively( “never”) and only approximately 25% of the persons asked showed a somehow active participation (“sometimes” 19,8% and “often” 3,8%). 2.3 Results-Assessment of Cultural Communication A further obligation for DI.K.EK’s cultural audience is the reasoned assessment both of the various parts (e.g message content, means and frequency of communication etc.) and the whole communicative process, so that it supplies the necessary informative material for the process of feedback, which will assist the adoption of remedial actions. This process is meaningful only if DI.Κ.Ε.Κ takes into consideration the cultural and social suggestions of its audience, and encourages the latter’s participation, a factor contributing to the establishment of a participatory process. Through the two relevant questions, it was revealed that as far as the utilization of the suggestions is concerned, the audience gave answers between “disagree ” and “rather disagree” (with mean=2,50 and standard deviation=1,489), with high percentages (76,7%) extending in the span from “strongly disagree” to “rather disagree”, while with regard to the encouragement of suggestion


making, the audience responded “rather disagree” (with mean=2,92 and standard deviation=1,485) with an also high percentage (67,9% ) extending in the same span. When completing the process of providing feedback, it is essential that DI.K.E.K itself inform the audience about the possibility and the degree to which the suggestions made are utilized, so that a basis for an ongoing brainstorming process is built, which if used –even partially-will benefit both parts, establishing an effective communicative relationship. In the relevant question however, the cultural audience stresses with a high percentage (61,8%) the absence of a process of providing information concerning the outcome of the recommended on its part cultural and social action. 3. Review- Conclusions

Although DI.Κ.Ε.Κ. is still to date the main cultural social body of the Municipality of Karditsa, with a long cultural and social experience, aiming at the promotion of actions of cultural and social creativity and development, it displays a mediocre total communicative acceptance by its cultural audience because of its conscious inability to gauge the needs of the audience it addresses, thus showing an excessive introversion trend. More specifically, this trend is proven through a series of incomplete communicative processes, such as the absence of means concerning the frequency of direct collection of the audience’s opinion about the kind of the cultural and social activities, and further the degree to which its cultural and social needs are met. Therefore the phenomenon of partial or total citizen disinterest is observed leading to its distancing itself from the planning and the final creation of the produced cultural product. An additional obligation of the cultural audience ,namely reasoned assessment not only of the various communicative parts (eg. message content, communicative means and frequency etc) but also of the total communicative process so as to supply DI.K.E.K with informative material essential for the process of feedback, which will help in the adoption of amending movements, doesn’t seem to contribute positively to DI.K.E.K since it doesn’t take into consideration and thus doesn’t make use of the cultural and social suggestions of its audience while it doesn’t also encourage the rendering of such recommendations.

4. References

Athanasopoulou, Α. (2003), “Public awareness and participation”, in: Athanasopoulou, Α., et. al.(eds), Cultural Communication, Vol. Β, Communicative Means ,Patras: HOU, pp.107-154. (in Greek) Belias, D. and Koustelios, A.(2014a), “The impact of leadership and change management strategy on organizational culture ”, European Scientific Journal, Vol.10, No.7, pp. 451-470. Belias, D. and Koustelios, A.(2014b), “The Influence of Demographic Characteristics of Greek Bank Employees on their Perceptions of Organizational Culture”, International Journal of Human Resource Studies, Vol. 4, No.1:pp.81-100. Bishop, Y., Finberg, S., Holland, P.(2007 ), Discrete Multivariate Analysis: Theory and Applications, New York: Springer Science and Business Media Publishing Bryant, J. (1988), “The Principles of Marketing: A Guide for Museums”, Association of Independent Museums Guideline, No. 16. Chambouri-Ioannidou, E. (2002a), “The Structure of Culture in Greece”, in: Athanasopoulou, Α., et.al.(eds), The dimensions of Cultural Phenomena, Vol.Β, Cultural Framework, PATRAS: HOU, pp.15-61. (in Greek) Chambouri-Ioannidou, E.(2002b), “Cultural Norms and Cultural Institutions in Greece”, in: Athanasopoulou, Α., et.al.(eds), The dimensions of Cultural Phenomena, Vol.Β, Cultural Framework, PATRAS: HO, pp.67-133. (in Greek) Chambouri-Ioannidou, E.(2003), “Management Strategy of Cultural Institutions”, in: Vinieratou, Μ., et al.(eds), Cultural Policy and Administration-Cultural Management , Patras: HOU, pp.25-66. (in Greek)

Ekonomou, M..(2003). “The role of the manager culture –Structure of the Profession”, in: Venieratou, M, et al. (eds), Cultural Policy and Administration –Cultural Management ,Patras: HOU, pp. 67-113. (in Greek) Filias, V.(1988).Contemporary Approaches , Athens :Modern Age (in Greek) Fiske, J. (1992), Introduction to Communication, Athens: Communication and Culture.

(in Greek) Fiske, J. (2011). Reading the Popular,2nd Edition, Oxford : Routledge. Grodach, C. & Loukaitou-Sideris, A.(2007), “Cultural Development Strategies and Urban Revitalization. A survey of US cities”, International Journal of Cultural Policy, Vol. 13, No 4,pp. 349-370. Hair J., Black W. , Babin B. , Anderson R.(2010 ), Multivariate data analysis, 7th Edition, Englewood, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Higher Education. Ηowitt, D. & Cramer, D. (2010), Strategy with SPSS 16, Athens: Klidarithmos. (in Greek)


Kakkou, P. (2009),“Planning of an Improved Organizational Structure so that the Competitiveness of the Municipal Enterprise of Tourism and Recreation in Karditsa is raised (D.E.T.A.K.) within the Local and Regional Cultural Environment”, Diploma Thesis, MSc in the Administrat ion of Cul tural Units , HOU, Department of socia l Sciences,Patras,pp.1-78. (in Greek) Κastoras, S. (2002), Cultural Communication– Communication Principles and Methods, vol. Α΄, Patras: HOU. Koontz, H. & O’Donnel, C.(1983b). Organization and Administration A Systemic and Contingent Analysis of the Administrative Function, 2ndEd., vol.1,Athens: Papazisi . (in Greek) Kosiol, E.(1962), “Enterprise Organization”, Wiesbaden.(in German) Lord, G .(2008), “Models of Urban Collectivity and their effects on the administration and leadership of museums.”, Museology Notebooks , issue 5, pp.4-9. (in Greek) Paschalidis, G. (2002a), “Basic Concepts and Issues in Studying Culture and Art”, in: Paschalidis, G. and Chambouri-Ioannidou, E.(eds), Dimensions of the Cultural Phenomena , Vol. Α, Introduction to Culture, Patras: HOU, pp.19-79. (in Greek) Sdrolias, L.(1992), “Planning of an improved Organizational structure for increasing the Competitiveness of the Greek Sugar Industry S.A. within the European Union”, Dissertation, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria. (in German) Siomkos, G.& Vasilikopoulou, E. (2005), Implementation of Analysis Methods on Research Market ,Athens: Stamouli. (in Greek) Streeten, P.(2006), “Culture and Economic Development”, in: Ginsburg, Victor and Throsby, David(eds.) Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, Elsevier B.V Science Publisher, Amsterdam, vol.1,pp.399-412 Varner, I.(2000), “The Theoretical Foundation for Intercultural Business Communication: A Conceptual Model”, Journal of Business Communication , vol. 37, no. 1: pp. 39-57 Wöhe, G. (2013), “Introduction to General Business Management”, 25th Edition, Saarbrücken: Vahlen.(in German)

4.1 Institutional Texts

P.D. 323/1989, Special Provisions of the Municipal and Community Code “about the Set up and Operation of Municipal Enterprises” G.G. 298/4-5-1990, Set up of municipal enterprise in the Prefecture of Karditsa. under the name “Municipal Enterprise of Tourism and Recreation of Karditsa”

G.G. 114/9-6-2006, ν. 3463 “About validating the Code of Municipalities and Communities”


The Study of Applicable Patterns of Salakphet

Local Market Management for Tourism in Trat

Province, Thailand

JITTASAK PUTJORN

Assistant Professor, Tourism Management Program, Faculty of Management Science Silpakorn University Petchburi IT Campus, Thailand

THITIMA VECHAPONG, PH.D.

Assistant Professor, Community Management Program, Faculty of Management Science Silpakorn University Petchburi IT Campus, Thailand

SUPPARAT SANGCHATKAEW

Assistant Professor, Language Department, Faculty of Management Science Silpakorn University Petchburi IT Campus, Thailand

TIPSUDA PUTJORN

Community Management Program, Faculty of Management Science Silpakorn University Petchburi IT Campus, Thailand

SABAITIP MONGKOLNIMITR

Hotel and Lodging Business Program, Faculty of Management Science Silpakorn University Petchburi IT Campus, Thailand


Language Department, Faculty Management Science, Silpakorn University Petchburi IT Campus, Thailand

MORAKOT BOONSIRICHAI

Tourism Management Program, Faculty of Hospitality Industry, Dusit Thani College, Thailand

ABSTRACT

Establishing local markets for tourism purposes challenged the difficulties without the accurate directions. Therefore, Salakphet community in Trat, Thailand needed to investigate the appropriate patterns to follow the guidelines of local market management. The research aimed to identify the patterns of achieved local market management in Thailand and explore the factors that drove the successful local markets. The qualitative research was conducted by adopting in-depth interviews with market stakeholders, groups of local retailers who were influenced by establishing the local markets and official administrators in the total of 44 participants. Furthermore, non-participant observation of each local market was involved in this study. Being successful in local market management, the results revealed five crucial factors: management, place, product, price and promotion. The initial factor was Management which the public sector set the central committees and self-operating group collaborating with private sectors, governmental sectors and educational institutions by assigning individual tasks and duties. In relation to places, locating near communities, accessing to transportations, providing sufficient and convenient parking spots, toilets and signs were regarded. Referring to prices by offering low prices, using local materials, operating direct sell to reduce the labour cost and budget and trading with hospitality and special discounts led to increase the values of the prices. Promotions were incorporated as the final related factor of local market management. To promote selling and products, giving information to tourists or customers such as brochures, broadcasts as well as giving information from the retailers directed to supporting pleasurable activities within communities. However, relating to Thai context of being successful in local market management, the associated factors needed to be considered in views of 1) foregoing background of connection with communities 2) respectable committees and systematic and effective administration with various group cooperation 3) convenient locations and nearby local residential areas 4) remaining local lifestyles 5) offering varieties of products and local material usages 6) valuable prices to purchases the products 7) various local foods and available products to purchase as souvenirs 8) fresh and unique products 9) supplying goods to the markets by local retailers within communities 10) local resident participations 11) presenting the stability of the operating times 12) operating particular days a week 13) providing necessary facilities 14) networking and cooperating with supportive organizations to continually inform news and information. Hence, taking into account of all essential factors led to gain successful managing local markets. Keywords: Tourism, Management, Local market, Community


INTRODUCTION

A market is not only a place for economic commodity exchange, but it also a part of a community that requires the systemic management to unite the community. Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Public Organization) allocates the managing strategies to operate the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration and local communities within the balanced principles in terms of economy, society and environment as well as supportive policies of taking the idea of Value Creation. These principles based on the sustainable tourism of Thainess, lifestyle, local wisdom, Arts and History.

Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Public Organization) have brought the policies to adapt with the designated areas where they were studied the appropriate patterns of Salakphet market management with the supported project of eco-tourism and cultural tourism in the designated areas of Chang Island to study the successful patterns to adapt with the Salakphet community. The policies also support the activities that develop qualities of living, welfares, stability of nutrition, balanced living within the potential resources and cultural community, well management, self-reliance to serve the changes in a Thai society and globalization trends as well as leading to reduce poverty. According to the policies mentioned above, the researchers intend to study the successful patterns of market management to adopt the models and identify the factors towards being successful local markets in Thailand. In addition, the researchers propose to seek the possibility of promote the Salakphet local market and allocate the appropriate patterns for local markets. Thus, the objectives of this research were to study the successful patterns of local markets in Thailand, study factors of successful Thai local markets.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research aimed to study the appropriate patterns for Salakphet local market for Tourism in Trat province, Thailand. The qualitative research has been conducted between 16 September 2012 and 13 February 2014. The research used in-depth interviews with market stakeholders, groups of local retailers who were influenced by establishing the local markets and official administrators in the total of 44 participants from 11 places around Thailand; 2 local markets in Chaing Mai, 2 local markets in Mahongsorn, 3 local markets in NakornPhathom, 1 local market in Chacherngsao, 1 local market in Surat Thani, 1 local market in Sognkla and 1 local market in Nakhon Si Thummarat. Moreover, non-participant observation of each local market was involved in this study.

Results According to the objectives of this study, the researchers summarized the results into 2 sections;

Studying the successful local markets to analyse the appropriate patterns of local market management

With the investigations of 11 local markets, each places used different strategies, Marketing Mixed Method for the market management to suit the context and characteristics of the communities. These reasons initiated the emerging interesting local markets in Thailand to attract tourists to visit and purchase the local products. Being successful in local market management, the results revealed five crucial factors: management, place, product, price and promotion.

1) Management Management was a process which set to operate the local markets such as setting the central committees and self-operating group collaborating with private sectors, governmental sectors and educational institutions by assigning individual tasks and duties. The factors that continually drove the movement were 1) the characteristics of the leaders who drove the market management 2) ethics for administration management 3) Participations 4) Continuality in administration system 5) setting clear rules within the markets. In general, most of the structures of the local markets set the central committees and self-operating groups. Each group of committee such as places, finance, collaborating was assigned to drive their individual tasks and duties to drive the local markets. The leaders of driving the market management found to be indicators of the progression or regression. One outstanding example found in Kad Hor, Chaing Mai where the leader of the market was trustworthy and knowledgeable with using ethical management, focusing the qualities of Haral foods and keeping clean and tidy market areas.

2) Place Place was one of importance factor to facilitate the customers for purchasing products. The

major local markets found to be located near the community areas that were considered as 1) convenient places 2) accessible to transportations 3) sufficient parking lots 4) toilet services 5) signs to point the directions within the markets.

3) Product Local products in the market were produced from raw materials which were available in the local communities. Thus, the products represented the local communities and interested the tourists to purchases the merchandises. The products themselves were sourced from the natural resources of the communities. These processes presented the dissimilarities between other markets and the charms of the local markets that offered the products in relation to the seasons. This means that the local markets have been remained operating alongside with the trading competitions of the convenient shops in the villages.

4) Price Price helped balancing the products and values of the products which attracted the customers

to select the products. One reason that differentiated the local market and other markets was the inexpensive prices of products because the raw materials were available within the communities. Moreover, the traders and customers directly


traded without paying for the merchant middlemen. This led to offer the low prices of products and satisfied the tourist customers.

5) Promotion According to the study, promotions of the local markets were comprised of four important

reasons; 1) information for the tourist customers 2) welcoming atmosphere 3) additional activities that supported by communities or other organizations and 4) local lifestyles of the communities which interested the tourists. Hence, it can be concluded the model of market management as following;

Figure 1: The concept of the successful local market management Factors of being successful Thai local markets

By analysing data from the 11 markets, the researchers identified the strengths, weaknesses and the successful factors in the market management. The study found the strengths from the successful local markets as following; 1) having long period of time of setting markets 2) offering local products by using local materials 3) offering varieties of products 4) using raw materials from natural resources 5) service minds of local traders 6) locating within the local resident areas 7) setting temporary stalls with plain and clean styles 8) inexpensive prices 9 presenting the atmosphere of local culture and lifestyles 10) assigning zoning area 11) co-operating groups of traders 12) keeping clean during cooking 13) using media for advertising 14) providing toilets and facilities 15) cleaning after closing 16) easy to access to the local markets 17) attractive tourist attractions nearby 18) effective

System of the market management

Location in relation to the unique local community

Sale promotion, activities and services

Price and quality of the product

Local resident participations for particular context with the clear working processes

Local Market

administrative systems by local communities 19) conducting researches and co-operating with educational institutions 20) management system of the cultural and environmental impacts 21) protecting architectures and cultural heritages 22) development plans 23) clubs for conserving traditional and local foods 24) using the market areas for cultural activities 25) setting the rules 26) administrative committees for the quality control. The weaknesses that were found from the successful local market were 1) insufficient parking lots 2) similarities of the products 3) lack of increasing values of the products 4) conflict of interests 5) inadequate rubbish bins 6) lack of toilets 7) unstable offering products for vending 8) locating in tourist attractions which caused crowded areas particularly during holidays As revealed by the research results, the factors that drove and maintain achievement in maintaining local markets were 1) having long history and connecting with the communities 2) reliable administrative committees and well managed with participations 3) appropriate locations 4) presenting local lifestyles 5) presenting local materials from local products 6) trading valued products 7) varieties products and local foods 8) fresh and unique products 9) continuous trading 10) lively venders 11) stability of opening and closing time 12) operating particular days a week 13) providing necessary facilities 14) networking and cooperating with supportive organizations to continually inform news and information.

conclusionS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The study identified the strengths, weaknesses and the factor that drove successful local markets from 11 local markets around Thailand. To be achieved in setting the markets, the local communities needed to take into account of five crucial factors; 1) Management 2) Place 3) Product 4) Price and 5) Promotions. These factors associated with the factors of managing the new marketing Bachmann (2008) which comprise leaders, traders, locations, operating time, freshness of the products, arts and handcrafted products, suitable prices and rules set by the local management and the government. To set the local market in Salakphet community, the patterns of 11 local markets facilitated Salakphet community to identify the unique pattern for the particular context. The community has its potential to drive the local market; however, the community needs to cooperate with public and private organizations and local resident participations as well as using the local resources to sustainably drive Salakphet local market.


REFERENCES Bachmann, J. (2008). Farmers’ Markets: Marketing and Business Guide. Retrieved on September 18, 2013 from www.attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/farmmarket.pdf กรมสงเ สรมการเกษตร. (2553). “ถอดบทเรยนตลาดชมชนสนคาเกษตร กรณตลาดดอนแขวน ตาบลสไพบลย อาเภอเสงสาง จงหวด นครราชสมา”. เขาถงจาก http://www.research.doae.go.th/webphp/filepdf/marketDonkan53.pdf. เขาถงเมอ วนท 20 กนยายน 2556. กตตพร ใจบญ. (2549). “ตลาดกบวถชวต : บทสารวจเบองตนเกยวกบการศกษาเรองตลาดในสงคมไทย .” ใน ตลาดในชวต

ชวตในตลาด, 19–

102. เกยรต จวะกล และคณะ. (2525). ตลาดในกรงเทพมหานคร : การขยายตวและพฒนาการ. (งานวจยนไดรบทนจา กฝายวจย

จฬาลงกรณมหาวทยาลย เนองใน

โอกาสการสมโภชกรงรตนโกสนทรครบรอบ 200 ป).

ณรงคศกด ปนเกลา . (2552). “ศกษารปแบบและกลยทธในการประกอบการตลาดนดคณาวรรณ อาเภอกาแพงแสน จงหวดนครปฐม”.

ปรญญามหาบณฑต

(สาขาวชาการประกอบการ) มหาวทยาลยศลปากร.

ดารงพล อนทรจนทร. “ตลาดชายขอบของมอญพลดถน .” ใน ตลาดในชวต ชวตในตลาด, 207 – 262. สมรกษ

ชยสงหกานนท, บรรณาธการ. กรงเทพฯ :

โอ.เอส. พรนตงเฮาส .

พชรนทร ฤชวรารกษและคณะ. (2552). ตลาดชมชนทางเลอก เพอการพฒนาตามแนวทางเศรษฐกจพอเพยง.

เอกสารประกอบการสมมนาวชาการของสถาบนวจย

และพฒนา มหาวทยาลยขอนแกน เรอง คลงความรแหงทศวรรษใหม วจยเพอสงคม.

ศนยมานษยวทยาสรนธร (องคการมหาชน). (2549). ตลาดในชวต ชวตในตลาด. กรงเทพฯ : โอ.เอส. พรน ตงเฮาส .

สมพร เฟองจนทร. (2547). แนวคดและหลกการจดการในองคการสาธารณะ. กรงเทพ : สานกพมพจฬาลงกรณ.

สนต เศวตวมล. (2544). ตานานตลาดไทย. กรงเทพฯ : โรงพมพธรรมสาร.

อมพร ธารงลกษณ. (2551). องคการ: ทฤษฎ โครงสรางและการออกแบบ. กรงเทพฯ: โรงพมพมหาวทยาลยธรรมศาสตร.

Seasonality issues in established tourism

destinations: Expanding tourism season in

Sithonia Peninsula, Central Macedonia, Greece

FOTIOS KILIPIRIS, PhD.

Professor of Tourism Management & Hospitality, Dept. of Business Administration, Alexander Technological Educational Institute (ATEI) of Thessaloniki

ATHANASIOS DERMETZOPOULOS, M.Sc. External Collaborator, Dept. of Business Administration, Alexander Technological

Educational Institute (ATEI) of Thessaloniki.


Introduction Sithonia peninsula is part of the greater Halkidiki area tourism destination in the region of Central Macedonia in northern Greece. Since the 70’s and 80’s Sithonia is realized an established tourism destination attracting visitors from both abroad and domestic especially from the nearby Thessaloniki urban center. Its basic tourism form is the one of resort holidays although a remarkable number of visitors use the area as a second home tourism destination. Most of the tourism activity is concentrated in the peak summer months of July and August that means a high degree dependency by seasonality, raising in such a way, to the local businesses as well as to local communities, certain sustainability issues, both economical and environmental. The awareness over the issue of developing a more balanced tourism activity that expands all year around expressed by local key tourism players, like tourism entrepreneurs and municipality authorities as well as tourism scholars, led to undertaking and implementation of this research*. Its main purpose is to investigate all the crucial factors that play important role to the implementation of the specified target, factors varying from a multiple tourism resource base to infrastructures and marketing strategies. *The relevant research was financed by the Research Committee of the Alexander Technological Educational Institute (ATEI) of Thessaloniki-Department of Tourism Management.

Tourism in Greece

Greece is one of the top tourism destinations in the world. The number of tourism visits over the last decade has shown a steady increase. From 14.2 million international visitors in 2004, more than 17 million people visited Greece in 2008. In the midst of recession in 2013 almost 18 mil. visitors visited the country, and it is expected that that up to year 2020 this number will reach 20 million, almost twice the country’s population and making Greece a global tourism destination. In fact Lonely Planet placed Greece among its top 10 destinations for 2010 and Greece ranked second in England’s 2008 Telegraph Travel Awards in their Best European Country ranking. Greece has more than 15,000 km of coastline, 190,000 beaches, and 6,000 islands and islets. In addition, visitors are discovering the diverse selection of sailing and cruising options, incentive travel, and weekend breaks, opening up new opportunities in niche and attractive markets. Except beaches Greece has also mountains of excellent natural and manmade environment offering multiple tourism products and experiences to the alternative tourists. Greece’s Mediterranean climate is ideal for year-round tourism and one of the core priorities of Greece today is to create a dynamic, sustainable, four-season tourism infrastructure that responds to the diverse and challenging needs of contemporary tourist. In numbers Greek tourism industry accounts for 18% of Greece’s GNP, directly or indirectly employs more than 900.000 people, and is the leading source of the country’s invisible receipts (36% in 2007). Approximately 85% of arrivals originate in Western Europe: 21.2% from the United Kingdom, 17.5% from Germany, 8.8% from Italy, 5.3% from France, 5.2% from Holland, and 7.5% from the Scandinavian countries. Last few year’s significant numbers of visitors from Eastern Europe and China are making Greece their

preferred destination, creating a wider base of origin countries and new demands for services, facilities, and attractions.

Chart 1. Tourist Arrivals in millions by year 2004-2008

Source: Greek National Tourism Organization and National Statistical Services of Greece 2009.

The Greek hotel industry

Historically, hotels in Greece have been small in size, with the average number of beds per hotel standing at 76. Larger hotel units with more diverse offerings will be a welcome addition to the current accommodation infrastructure. Most of the hotels in Greece are categorized as 1- and 2-starhotels, meaning there is plenty of room for investors to establish 4-and 5-star properties. According to the Greek Hotel Branding Report, branded hotels in Greece account for only 4% of the total number of hotels and 19% of total availability of rooms, while in other European countries this figure lies between 25 and 40%. Chart no.2 shows the breakdown of hotels by star rating at key tourist destinations.


Chart 2. Hotels by star rating at key tourist destinations including Halkidiki.

Source: National Statistical Service 2013.

The tourism period

Although the country’s tourism infrastructure is well developed, Greece is committed to expanding its tourism offerings and establishing itself as a 12-month destination. Its Mediterranean climate is ideal for activities such as year round golf and trekking and it is estimated that one million Europeans would consider Greece as a second home destination. At present, 70% of arrivals are in the May-October period and visits are disproportionately concentrated in Crete (21% of total bed capacity) the Dodecanese islands, which includes Rhodes (17%), the Ionian Islands, which includes Corfu (12%), Attica, which includes Athens (9%), the Cyclades islands, which includes Santorini and Mykonos (6%). The entire Halkidiki peninsula attracts 6.5% of the total arrivals. Among the targeted sectors for expansion include the development of integrated resorts and residential real estate, golf courses and sports tourism, wellness and health tourism, upgraded and new marinas, conference centers, agro tourism products, religious tourism, thermal spas and thalassotherapy centers, gastronomy tourism, and a wide range of thematic offerings related to Greece’s rich cultural and historical heritage. The completition of new basic road infrastructures connects north and south, east and west of the country and helps even the most farest areas to be achieved. . The

newly completed Egnatia Highway, connecting Igoumenitsia with the Turkish border, is one of the most ambitious transport projects in the European Union of the last decade. The Ionian Highway, which connects Patras with Igoumenitsa, complements to the system’s upgrading.

The area

Sithonia is the middle of the three Halkidiki peninsulas located in the Region of Central Macedonia in the northern Greece. The entire area is also a municipality, with the seat town of Nikiti. A number of gulfs surrounds the peninsula with the Singitic Gulf to the west and the Toronean Gulf to the east. Also the mount Itamos lies in the center of the peninsula. Amongst the places of archeological interest in the area is the ancient city of Toroni, the castle and the church of Agios Athanasios, also in Toroni, and the nearby ancient cities of Olynthos, Potidea and Stageera hometown of philosopher’s Aristoteles. Also the windmills in Sikia as well as the 16th century church in Nikiti are basic tourist’s attractions in the area.

Literature review

Seasonality in general is defined as a “temporal imbalance in the phenomenon of tourism, which may be expressed in terms of dimensions of such elements as numbers of visitors, expenditure of visitors, traffic on highways and other forms of transportation, employment and admissions to attractions” (Butler 2001).


Seasonality is realized as a major problem in the tourism industry since is responsible for low returns on investment, overuse and underuse of facilities in high and low season respectively, as well as seasonal employment of staff and high unemployment subsidizes during the unemployment season. Also creates both natural and social implications since environment and local communities accept huge pressures in high/peak season that lead many times to the decrease of visitor’s satisfaction and the tourism product as a whole.

To address the effects of seasonality there this number of strategies that are used. These include:

- pricing strategies - diversifying the attraction - market diversification

All the strategies must take into consideration all local stakeholders since expanding tourism season is a matter of many key players. This includes central government tourism policy, tourism industry, regional and local authorities. Seasonality has been studied in a number of ways raising the issue in both temporal and spatial dimension and expressed in both monetary terms (social and capital costs) as well visitor numbers (Jang 2004). A number of studies have so far taken place regarding seasonality in tourism and the negative impacts on the destination. For instance Butler’s and Mao’s (1997) study identified the two dimensions of seasonality for both the origin and the destination areas. These are the natural (physical) and institutional (social and cultural) dimensions (Fig. 3). Regarding natural seasonality this relates to temporal variations in natural phenomena (e.g. rainfall, sunlight, snowfall etc). For certain tourism forms this is easily understood. In the case of Sithonia peninsula sea bathing or yachting for instance, require both warm temperatures and generally calm weather. On the other side institutionalized seasonality is more complex as it is based on human behavior and consumer decision like for instance the timing decision of going vacation or travel.

Figure 3: Factors of seasonality in tourism, Butler and Mao (1997)

Methodology

Literature review on tourism seasonality was the first step that was adopted regarding the specific research. Also national bodies’ studies were taken into consideration. A field research with a semi structured questionnaire was adopted to identify opinions of local stakeholders over the issue of extending tourism period. The target groups were:

- local tourism entrepreneurs - professional bodies that are directly and indirectly dependent from tourism

like honey producers, fishermen, wine makers, olive oil producers etc - local cultural associations - local community.

SUPPLY FACTORS

DEMAND FACTORS

GENERATING AREA PHYSICAL FACTORS

Temperature Rainfall Snowfall Sunlight Daylight

SOCIAL/CULTURAL FACTORS

Holiday pattern Religious Tradition Fashion Hobby

Sport activities

Modifying Actions- Differential Pricing

- Diversified Attraction - Market

diversification -Facilitation by the

State

RECEIVING AREA

PHYSICAL FACTORSTemperature

Rainfall Snowfall Sunlight Daylight

Plant & animal activities

SOCIAL/CULTURALFACTORS

Sport Religious Trade Fair

Special events


Results

Expanding the tourism period in Sithonia peninsula by reducing seasonality is a matter of many factors that include tourism infrastructures, a variable tourism product as well as the use of certain marketing tools. Specifically: a. Infrastructures

Includes investments in the tourism sector like the upgrade of the marina at Porto Carras, as well as upgrade of existing hospitality infrastructures. A new law in 2011 that subsidizes upgrading of hotel infrastructures will help although certain concerns were expressed over the issue of investor’s subscription to the project since they must have their own contribution. An issue remains the lack of financing by the banking system. Another type of infrastructures includes the development of natural and cultural pathways as well interpretation, in order to divert the destination from a sea resort to alternative forms of tourism destination.

b. Sustainability

Inherent in the area’s tourism development policy is the issue of sustainability. Some hotels and resort complexes are installing photovoltaic systems in an effort to become more carbon neutral from one side and lowering the operational cost on the other side so they can be operational in a larger time period. And here the issue of self financing such projects becomes a major issue due to the lack of means.

c. New tourism products

Alternative to mass tourism activities becomes a part of a strategy that leads to seasonality reduction. Environmentally (natural and manmade) tourism activities like cultural, rural (agro tourism), ecological tourism are some of the alternative tourism products that combined with distinctive lodging, can increases tourism experience and can work as a tool of minimizing dependency of tourism seasonality in the area. The introduction of a “local quality agreements” by all stakeholders can improve the destinations’ brand image. d. Human resources development

Human capital must respond to the new challenges. From management to catering and recreation as well as local authority personnel must be trained to the new competitive environment and the target for expanding tourism period. Developing local tourism consciousness and identity by local communities becomes of paramount importance. Alternative forms of tourism put a special emphasis on human interaction between the visitors and the locals. So, local communities and businesses must respond on that.

e. Tourism policy

Reflecting the importance of expanding tourism season not only for Sithonia peninsula but also for the entire Greek economy, national authorities like Ministries of Tourism, Finance, Employment must be dedicated through certain measures to encourage tourism businesses to operate larger periods of time by giving certain incentives, like lowering V.A.T. and other taxation for certain low season or subsidizing employment in tourism. Also the same applies for local authority.

f. Marketing

Marketing can be a useful tool for creating a brand image of the destination. Basic infrastructures that help increase tourism period. The forming of the Halkidiki Destination Management Organization will help on this direction presuming that all the above will be met.

g. Holiday Homes

Finally, holiday homes a paradigm from international experience can create new perspectives for the area. Although in the area there are a significant number of second homes from the vicinity Thessaloniki area residents, the idea to develop holiday homes for foreigners, especially from northern Europe’s cold climates will improve seasonality figures. A new, comprehensive legislation that is under consultation in government and refers to the construction of holiday homes for foreigners, according to expert estimations more than 1 million Europeans would consider a second/holiday home in Greece as a whole with a reasonable number going to the Sithonia area.

Conclusions

Expanding tourism period and reducing seasonality is of paramount importance for any tourism destination. To accomplish this target a number of actions has to be undertaken involving in this proccess all the local, and not only, stakeholders. This research revealed that extending tourism period is not a simple process. Involves commitment and strateging planning of all interested parts related with actions varying from infrustructures development to developing local tourism consiousness culture and brand image of new tourism products. It is a process that also must me embraced by central national tourism policy giving certain incentives to local tourism industry.


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Territory as Basis for Touristic Planning: Paths

for Regional Development

(Poster)

SARAH MARRONI MINASI

University of Santa Cruz do Sul

VIRGINIA ELISABETA ETGES

Professor and Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Regional Development – University of Santa Cruz do

EVERTON SIMON

University of Santa Cruz do Sul

1 INTRODUCTION

Commonly, the terms space and territory are confused for each other by

colloquial language, which contributes to the raise of the ambiguities that surround

these concepts. In this sense, it is fundamental to comprehend clearly the

distinctions between space and territory. As is put by Raffestin (1993, p. 144), “the

space is anterior, preexistent to any action”. Space is, in a certain way, ‘given’ as it

was an input. Cruz (2000, p. 18) discusses the concept of territory and reads it in

the spectrum of tourism.

Territory corresponds to functional fractions (SANTOS, 1997) of space. It corresponds to the functionalized space, being appropriated by specific social actors (which attribute to it specific functions), in a given historic moment. Hence, while referring to spaces appropriated by tourism, there is, to portions of space functionalized by tourism, we utilize the concept of touristic territory, adopted by Knafou (1996).

Tourism is an activity dependent and consumer of territory, thus

influencing its transformation, requiring an increasing rationality due to the

competiveness of touristic products, today in a global scale. Rationality and

competitiveness in the perspective of the creation of competitive advantage and

not a perverse competitiveness, in this way highlighting the particularities present

in each touristic territory. In this context, planning regarding territory appears as a

condition for the success of sectorial plans and policies aiming for valuation of

particularities (CRUZ, 2000).

However, the absence of the territorial dimension surrounds a great

portion of the history of Brazilian public policies. Theis and Galvão (2012, p. 55)

argue that “public policies can be more effective if its spatial dimension is brought

to the first plan. And if notions of space, territory and region have their meaning

properly explicited”.

Tourism has as a main characteristic the appropriation of territories and

its development depends on the current organization and relations. Because of

that, the performance of tourism in indirectly related to the country urban and

regional public policies, since those regard the organization of the territory.


The history of the actions of public power in Brazil, regarding tourism, show, however, that it has ignored, systematically, the complex group of relations in which the activity is inserted. The absence of concatenation between tourism policies and urban and regional policies is a clear example of the strict vision that surrounds the construction of both (CRUZ, 2000, p. 35-6).

By the widening and integration of the action of public power,

incorporating the territorial dimension, it is possible to aim for a development with

justice and equality. For Etges (2005), development, in a territorial perspective,

takes in perspective territory as a whole, comprehends its dynamics and diversity

and, then, proposes strategies to promote a regional sustainable development.

Similarly, Cruz (2000) alerts that the lack of territorial dimension in sectorial policies

and in planning, in a general way, eliminates any possibility to the elaboration of

well-succeeded plans and policies.

Regarding tourism, nowadays a strong tendency of development arises in

a regional sphere. This emerges as a response to globalization and as a way to

configure a touristic offer with high power of attractiveness. Situations in which

municipalities don’t have potential to sustain the touristic activity by themselves but

by doing it in a regional way makes it a viable alternative.

2 TERRITORY, REGION AND REGIONALIZATION

The constant presence of a simplifying vision in theoretical analysis and

discussions transformed the notions of space, territory and region in synonyms.

However, to explicit properly their meanings is essential, since the terms territory

and region are key in order to formulate and develop public policies that have as

goal any sort of intervention in the territory.

Santos (2002, p. 10) affirms that

territory isn’t just a group of natural systems and of systems constituted by juxtaposed things. Territory has to be understood as used territory, not the territory itself. Territory used is the ground added the identity. Hence, identity represents the feeling of belonging, of identification with the space where life occurs.

The production and territory valuation supposes the understanding of the

relations that make their functioning dynamic, since territory is a product and is

conditioned by social relations. To Raffestin (1993, p. 144) “evidently the territory

supports itself in space, but isn’t space. It is a production, through space”.

Territory is characterized as space of living (SANTOS, 2002), therefore,

is deducted the idea of something in constant transformation, without forgetting

traces of the past, present values and the impact of future actions. The socio-

spatial formation reveals the way territory is used by society (SILVEIRA, 2010, p.

76), territories are socially constructed and deconstructed. Thus, Etges (2001) says

that territory must be seen as something in process, a content-form, a trace of the

union between the past and the immediate future. It has to be seen as a force field,

a place of exercise, of contradictions between the vertical and the horizontal, State

and markets, economic use and social use of resources.

Raffestin (1993) shows that the territory is configured by the space and is

the result of an action conducted by a syntagmatic actor (an actor that realizes a

program) at any level. By appropriating space in a concrete or abstract way, the

actor territorializes the space. Still according o the author, the sense of acting and

the appropriation are expressed by the understanding that territory is a space in

which work is projected, being it energy or information, and that, by consequence,

reveals relations of power. Theis and Galvão (2012, p. 62) conclude that “the

concept of territory comprehends the relations of power individuals contract upon

themselves”.

By knowing the processes of social formation of territory, knowing the

material and immaterial fluxes, it is possible to comprehend the synergy and

dynamic of a specific region. Only with the comprehension of territory, with the

emergence of a territoriality/identity it is possible to think about region and

regionalization; if there isn’t an understanding of territory, there is no

regionalization. The region, through the perspective of the territory must be socially

constructed and have traces of identity. These traces are present in the culture,

economy and politics. Boisier (1994, p. 8) completes that socially constructing a

region is


potenciar su capacidad de auto organización, transformando una comunidad inanimada, segmentada por intereses sectoriales, poco perceptiva de su identificación territorial y en definitiva, pasiva, en otra, organizada, cohesionada, consciente de la identidad sociedad-región, capaz de movilizarse tras proyectos colectivos, es decir, capaz de transformarse en sujeto de su propio desarrollo.

Lencioni (1999) affirms that the region is a space with physical and

sociocultural characteristics, product of a history that created relations which made

men take root in the territory and made this space particular. Region, according to

Silveira (2010), today, more than ever, is a result of interdependencies and a

dialectic opposition between a global and a local order, and the author highlights

that it is in the region that the local and the global affirm and deny themselves

dialectically. According to Limonad (2004, p. 57-8), the region is constructed “by

the action of distinct actors/agents/subjects in multiple articulated scales, which in

some way find a refusal in practices and processes socio-spatial, historical and

geographically localized”.

More and more it is stressed that regions are constructed, consolidated,

transformed and decomposed through processes of social, political and economic

interaction, developed throughout history (BANDEIRA, 2007). That is, seeing the

region as a dynamic concept and not as a category that crystalizes contents form

the past (SILVEIRA, 2010).

Therefore, the region is not a place for homogeneity, since it is the result

of a particular perspective of analysis. This perspective can be physical, social,

cultural, economic or even a combination, because the region is composed by

various groups of activities and social relations between its actors. In this sense, it

becomes evident the dynamic characteristic of the region.

The simplistic act of grouping municipalities with superficial similarities

and geographical proximity does not configure a regionalization. This, in its turn,

consists in promoting the construction of a democratic, cohesive, participative

environment, capable of involving public power, private initiative, the third sector

and the resident population.

Regionalization is founded on the necessity or interest of intervention or

study of a specific territory. The delimitation of this area depends on criteria and

decisions that can be political, administrative, economic or scientific. It cannot be

forgotten that besides physical elements, territory is formed by various immaterial,

conflicting and dynamic elements. It is also important to emphasize that the results

of regionalization must, firstly, answer to the regional society demands. Otherwise,

the actor will not develop adherence to the proposal and actions, which generate

insignificant results.

3 APPROACHES ON TOURSTIC PLANNING

The concept of planning is situated in the roll of concepts that comprise

diverse meanings according to the interlocutor or field of knowledge. Touristic

planning also brings this range and comprises one of the fundamental aspects of

the touristic phenomenon.

Feger et al. (2010, p. 114) say that “regarding the future, planning

contributes to answering to three types of necessities related to it: creating a future;

facing known or predictable future situations; and/or coordinating between events

and resources”. Even though planning has a resolute character, Lira (1990, p. 3)

shows that

no debe confundirse con la elaboración de un documento denominado Plan o Estrategia porque: a) la selección, priorización, análisis de factibilidad y compatibilidad de los objetivos es una tarea permanente que involucra a todos los representantes de las sociedades regionales de un determinado territorio.

Public management, the main factor responsible for the performance of

planning, must seek to act in a coordinated way, promoting partnerships and

effectuating a constant flux of information in order to facilitate the process.

Therefore, the plan can only be conceptualized by the grouping of a political project

(LIRA, 1990).


The establishment of networks between actors of a region and between

regions appears to be an important tool for the exchange of information and

knowledge and it also configures itself as an action of integration and cooperation.

The political actions cannot ignore the information the groups themselves elaborate

based on their local universes of living, interacting and working (MARTELETO;

SILVA, 2004, p. 48).

The lack of integration between the agents involved in the other spheres

of management makes difficult the formulation and execution of planning actions.

“In this sense, it is necessary to qualify the planning, follow-up and evaluation

systems, network communication and information, in order to widen social

participation and guarantee the success of the shared management” (MINISTÉRIO

DO TURISMO, 2913, p. 25).

Hence, as affirms Lira (1990, p. 1-2),

"planificar" no es solo un problema técnico, tampoco una mera tarea del Estado, sino más bien una actividad continua de respaldo a un arduo y lento proceso de dialogo y entendimiento social, protagonizado directamente por los actores reales, públicos y privados, como también por la difusa y creciente gama de las entidades no gubernamentales.

Planning is an activity that involves the intention to establish favorable

conditions to reach the proposed goals. It has as objective the provisioning of

facilities and services so that a community attends to its objectives and necessities

(RUSCHMANN, 2001).

To reach the goals proposed by the plans, the specific diagnosis of the

touristic area and its potentialities, as well as complementary areas, is providential

to the construction of a strategic thought about what is intended for the region.

According to Lira (1990, p. 13), “el ‘arte’ de elaborar diagnósticos implica la

adecuada selección a priori de marcos interpretativos y de utilizar sabiamente

la infraestructura y oferta de información existente si es que realmente se

quiere avanzar”.

Tourism, as any other economic activity, sharpened by the capitalist

means of production and the territorial division of labor, is installed where the

most favorable conditions for its development are found. In this case, the

favorable condition is the presence of touristic attractions, understood as a

tourism input. After that, the territory of tourism is configured according to the

necessities of the activity and imposes its own logic of order.

The main characteristic of tourism, what makes it so complex and

brings out the necessity of planning, is its relation to territory. Tourism is seen

as the only activity that elementary consumes territory, the product of tourism

demands an organizational logic of territory use that is particular. According

to Cruz (2000, p. 12), the new socio-spatial organization established by the

touristic use of territory is settled in a preexistent socio-spatial organization

and it would be a mistake to believe that there are no struggles from the

encounter of these different temporalities. The old connections assimilate

novelties, but force, in the limit, the coexistence. It is the power of the

local/regional, the contiguous space, the co-presence (SILVEIRA, 1997) that

is manifested, that is imposed.

In this context, the economic, social, environmental, political and

cultural impacts generated by tourism turn into a necessity the process of

planning and managing able to orient and constitute itself as a powerful tool

for development (MINISTÉRIO DO TURISMO, 2003). Therefore, the way the

appropriation of a determined part of territory by tourism occurs depends on

the public policy of the sector. It is the public policy task to establish targets

and directions to accompany the socio-spatial development of the activity. In

the absence of public policy, tourism occurs by default, that is, according to

particular initiatives and interests (CRUZ, 2000). As Fratucci explains (2011,

p. 1483),

El turismo no es el sujeto de los procesos de turistificación sino el resultado de las acciones e interacciones de los diversos agentes sociales que lo producen, se observa que la dimensión espacial de esos procesos es fundamental para el establecimiento de políticas públicas o privadas que realmente intenten instalar, o incrementar, procesos de desarrollo humano sustentables y duraderos para las comunidades residentes en los destinos turísticos.


It is in the process of globalization that tourism planning is necessary,

since through tourism is possible to give value to the particularities and preserve

the region identity. That way is created a resistance regarding the rising perverse

competitiveness imposed by globalization and the tendency to homogenization of

destines.

The perspective of tourism development must transcend the sectorial and

corporate conception in order to widen and articulate the various dimensions of the

sector, organizations, territory and social participation. In this sense, Ruschmann

(2001, p. 100) alerts that the recognition of the amplitude of the phenomenon and

the range of factors, besides the interdisciplinary and convergent character of the

activity, made planning fundamental.

Therefore, a tourism public policy must articulate strategic questions

related to the touristic trade and society, aiming for a non-exclusive strengthening,

that opens participation space in new molds of management, that deepens

democratic participation also in the field of tourism, advancing beyond a private

character, so precious to the capitalist market (GASTAL; MOESCH, 2007).

The implantation of tourism management decentralization consists in a

higher approximation to the region situation, not incurring in suppositions about a

scenario. It is from management based on reality that decisions are made about

the best alternative for development, which doesn’t mean that management is

desynchronized with national or state orientations. Paiva (2004) agrees that a

diagnosis cannot be made without the full collaboration of local agents, because

the potential of each region depends, deeply, on the image local agents have of its

potentialities and of the future they idealize.

In order for tourism to be effective, it is not only necessary diagnosis and

elaboration of goals. The establishment of relations within the public sector, and

with that and society, academia and private initiative is a necessary condition for

the regional development of tourism. Still, there must be established relations

between municipalities, markets and other parts involved. However, the geographic

proximity of the agents involved with tourism is not a sufficient condition for

cooperation. It depends, firstly, on the capacity of constructing new regional

territorialities and unity in search of common goals.

5 CONTEXT OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN TOURISM

While approaching the term development it is necessary, firstly, to clarify

some related concepts. It is fundamental to distinguish the idea of economic

growth, still used as a synonym of development. Economic growth is a concept

used since the classics of Economics. For that, a barrier was created which makes

it difficult to transcend to the idea of development. For some authors, growth was

necessary for progress and translated as a raise in the production of goods of a

country. That being, the notion of growth represents a quantitative perspective.

According to Veiga (2006), in reality, until the mid-1970s, practically all

identified development solely as material progress. Still, “for some, progress would

lead spontaneously to better social standards. […] But all saw development as a

synonym of economic growth” (VEIGA, 2006, p. 161).

The logic of economic growth aims for the maximum expansion of

production means, disseminating actions throughout the territory that are coherent

with the global order. The capacity to produce each time more is increasing and

founded on the hegemonic discourse, which refers to growth as progress created

by globalization. Consuming is also aligned to the logic of growth, as well as mass

consuming, in which the offer exceeds the demand and products and consuming

patterns are massified.

Dupas (2007, p. 73) emphasizes the consequences inherent to economic

growth “[…] but this progress, dominant discourse of global elites, brings with it

exclusion, income concentration, underdevelopment and severe environmental

damages, aggressing and restricting essential human rights” [author’s emphasis].

On the other hand, the idea of development is constituted as a qualitative

change (VEIGA, 2006) of the Welfare State of society. Souza (1997) comprehends

that development is a process of overcoming social problems, forming a more just

society for its citizens. However, in order for that to happen, it is necessary to

overcome the notion of numeric growth and process and verify to whom this


progress “benefit” serves and under which risks and costs, being them social,

cultural or environmental.

The adaptation of the capitalist means of production to the notion of

development (sustainable or endogenous) is slow and difficult. Therefore, it is not

only about a conceptual question, but the challenge do construct, besides a

“concept” of the development, a true strategy to raise awareness in order to reach

it.

It is presented an idea of development stimulated by bottom-up actions,

aiming for an endogenous perspective to articulate decision-making. Through the

stimulus to participate and the capability of social organization it is made possible

to set in motion endogenous actions, since the agents themselves perform an

autonomous relation, mobilized and articulated. Is this case, the population

acknowledges its identity and becomes an active subject of regional development.

In this context, the process of regional development is composed by the

enhancement of the actors’ actions in the territory, configuring a territorial identity.

This notion of development brings up horizontalities. Santos (2006)

emphasizes that, based on territorial society it is possible to find a path that doesn’t

favor the perverse globalization and approximates development building. In this

conception, effective participation of actors is a priority. And, in order for

development to be viable, it must be founded in the principles of democracy and

cooperation.

In the case of tourism development, public policy must take the tourism

conception as an open and complex system, a multisectorial activity which

execution must, necessarily, incorporate multidisciplinar, multicultural and

multisocial visions (GASTAL; MOESCH, 2007, p. 45). Tourism, as public policy that

involves planning and management as a way to advance in the search of a more

humane and humanizing practice (GASTAL; MOESCH, 2007), breaching

globalizing tourism, must emphasize a development based on territory.

Cruz (2000, p. 17) says that “tourism concurs, in the process of territory

transformation for its use, along with other territory uses, as well as socio-spatial

formations that precedes its emergence”. In this sense, tourism can promote

substantial change within a region.

The clarity of this conception is deeply important, since some tourist

destinations, in the absence of organization and after the accentuated economic

interest, are developed ignoring regional particularities. This practice results in

copy and homogenization of destines. On the other hand, when taking an

endogenous approach, territory demands and particularities are emphasized. The

constructed, transformed and appropriated territory by the endogenous initiative of

regional actors contributes to the regional development. Teles (2006, p. 51) adverts

that “when tourism is not planned through the region perspective, it is created an

area dislocated from its context”.

6 FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The tourism sector in Brazil has struggled lately with the challenge to give

continuity to achievements from the last decades and to advance in the widening of

actions regarding touristic planning. These actions aim to make viable a continuous

and sustainable development and for that a shared management between many

sectors and actors involved is necessary.

Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of tourism,

planning is key so that the activity can occur promoting positive results. It is in the

practice of planning and managing that public power has an emphatic role. It is its

responsibility to prioritize actions that aim to articulate with other economic and

social sectors and, at the same time, actions in search of a regional development.

Rushmann (2001, p 9) highlights that “[…] the planning of spaces, equipment and

touristic activities presents itself as a necessity to avoid damages to the visited

locals and maintain attractiveness of resources for future generations”.

At last, besides notable benefits, tourism is an economic activity and its

reflexes can translate to harm and risks. In a general way, the negative aspects of

the activity originate in the lack of planning and knowledge about the complexity of

the touristic phenomenon, as well as overexploiting it.

Therefore, comprehending territory as an expression of appropriation and

usage by society is of fundamental importance in order to plan the touristic activity


in a sustainable way, enriching regional particularities as well as potentialities for

development.

REFERENCES

BANDEIRA, Pedro. Uma Experiência de Institucionalização de Regiões no Brasil: Os COREDEs do Rio Grande do Sul. p.115-162. Anais… Primeiro Colóquio Internacional sobre Desenvolvimento Territorial Sustentável, Florianópolis, 2007. Disponível em: <http://www2.al.rs.gov.br/forumdemocratico/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=ZLSG7-e8ceE%3D&tabid=5363&mid=7972>. Acesso em 8 de outubro de 2013. BOISER, Sérgio. La construcción social del regionalismo latinoamericano (Escenas, discursos y actores). Revista del CLAD Reforma y Democracia, Caracas, n. 2, p.1-19, jul. 1994 CRUZ, Rita de Cássia Ariza da. Política de turismo e território. São Paulo: Contexto, 2000. DUPAS, Gilberto. O mito do progresso. Novos estudos. São Paulo, n.77, p.73-89, mar 2007. ETGES, Virginia Elisabeta. A região no contexto da globalização: o caso do Vale do Rio Pardo. In: VOGT, Olgário e SILVEIRA, Rogério. Vale do Rio Pardo: (re)conhecendo a região. Santa Cruz do Sul: Edunisc. 2001. ETGES, Virginia Elisabeta. Desenvolvimento Regional Sustentável: o território como paradigma. Santa Cruz do Sul: REDES, vol. 10, 2005. FEGER, José Elmar et al. Regionalização: um desafio para o planejamento estratégico do desenvolvimento. Informe Gepec, Toledo, v. 14, n. 2, p. 112-128, jul./dez. 2010. FRATUCCI, Aguinaldo Cesar. PROCESO DE FORMACIÓN DE UNA RED REGIONAL: Región turística de las Agulhas Negras – RJ – Brasil. Estudyos y perspectivas en turismo, v.20, p.1493-1496, 2011. GASTAL, Suzana; MOESCH, Marutschka. Turismo, educação e cidadania. São Paulo: Aleph, 2007. LENCIONI, Sandra. Região e geografia. São Paulo: EDUSP, 1999.

LIMONAD, E. “Brasil século XXI: regionalizar para que? Para quem?” In: LIMONAD, E. et al. (org.) Brasil século XXI: por uma nova regionalização? São Paulo: Max Limonad, 2004. LIRA, Luis. La confección de estrategias de desarrollo regional. 1990. Disponível em:<http://bibhumartes.ucla.edu.ve/DB/bcucla/edocs/clases/LDH453/CEDRLuis_Lira.pdf>. Acesso em: 17 de setembro de 2013. MARTELETO, Regina Maria; SILVA, Antônio Braz de Oliveira e. Redes e capital social: o enfoque da informação para o desenvolvimento local. Ci. Inf., Brasília, v. 33, n. 3, p.41-49, set./dez. 2004. MINISTÉRIO DO TURISMO. Plano Nacional de Turismo. Brasília, 2003. Disponível em:<http://www.turismo.gov.br/export/sites/default/turismo/o_ministerio/plano_nacional/downloads_plano_nacional/PNT_2007_2010.pdf.> Acesso em: 7 de junho de 2013. MINISTÉRIO DO TURISMO. Programa de Regionalização do Turismo: Diretrizes. 2013. Disponível em: <http://www.turismo.gov.br/turismo/o_ministerio/publicacoes/cadernos_publicacoes/00Programa_de_Regionalizacao_do_Turismo.html>. Acesso em: 8 de outubro de 2013. PAIVA, C. A. Como identificar e mobilizar o potencial de desenvolvimento endógeno de uma região? Porto Alegre: FEE, 2004. RAFFESTIN, C. Por uma geografia do poder. São Paulo: Ed. Ática, SP.1993. RUSCHMANN, Dóris. Turismo e planejamento sustentável: a proteção do meio ambiente. 8ª Ed. Papirus, 2001. SANTOS, Milton. Território e Dinheiros. In: Território e Territórios. Niterói: Programa de Pós Graduação em Geografia – PPGEO-UFF/AGB, 2002. SANTOS, Milton. A natureza do espaço: técnica e tempo, razão e emoção. 4. ed. 2 reimp. São Paulo: EDUSP, 2006. SILVEIRA, Maria Laura. América Latina: cidade, campo e turismo. CLACSO, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales, São Paulo. Dezembro 2010. SILVEIRA, Maria Laura. Da fetichização dos lugares à produção local do turismo. In: RODRIGUES, Adyr Balastreri. Turismo, modernidade, globalização. São Paulo: HUCITEC, 1997.


SOUZA, M. J. L. de. O território: sobre espaço e poder, autonomia e desenvolvimento. In: CASTRO, I. E. de et al.(Orgs). Geografia: Conceitos e temas. Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil, RJ. 1997. p.77-116. TELES, Reinaldo M. de Sá. A importância do território na prática da planejamento turístico-Reflexões acerca do Brasil. In. RUSCHMANN, Dóris Van de Meene; SOLHA, Karina Toledo (orgs.). Planejamento turístico. Barueri: Manole, 2006. THEIS, Ivo e GALVÃO, Antônio. A formulação de políticas públicas e as concepções de espaço, território e região. Estudos urbanos e regionais, v.14, n.2, p. 55-69, nov. 2012. VEIGA, José Eli da. Meio ambiente & desenvolvimento. São Paulo: SENAC-SP, 2006.

The Role of DMO for Sustainable Development of

a Tourist Destination‐ Bulgaria Case Study

KRASIMIR ALEKSANDROV

Economic Faculty, Agricultural University‐Plovdiv, Bulgaria


ABSTRACT

The aim of the scientific report is to present in detail the role of Destination Management Organisation (DMO) for sustainable development of a tourist destination, as well as the opportunities for implementation of strategic policies and conditions for constituting different types of management structures. The competitiveness and attractiveness of destinations are supposed to use effective, sustainable strategies, based on the market conditions and preferences on one hand, and the other to balance the interests inside the destination. The main problems discussed in the report are concerned to: the concept for sustainable tourism; product features and management aspects of the destination, institutionalization and examples for DMO model; strategies and activities for sustainable tourism in Europe and the critics of legislation norms for establishing DMOs in Bulgaria. The paper’s actuality is argued by the problems facing the management of tourist destination in context of the ideas and policies for sustainable development in Europe. The issues for DMO are poorly represented in Bulgarian practice, which further allows us to create this paper.

Keywords: DMO, sustainable development, Bulgaria, destination INTRODUCTION

The development and management of destinations are largely determined by the direction in which the global tourism industry is developing. Many different sources indicate that the tourism industry has the potential to continue growing under the influence of socio-economic factors such as: demographic changes, economic well-being, business expansion, and the globalization of cultural and electronic connections. These factors pose a huge challenge for the subjects, who are relevant to making decisions about the path of tourist destinations’ development. The principles of sustainability are particularly emphasized.

Destination management is a complicated and complex task that requires an integrated systemic approach. In terms of demand, tourists can choose from a vast variety of destinations. In terms of supply, the destination management organisations are trying to draw the attention of highly competitive markets.

Competitiveness and attractiveness of the destinations suggest the use of effective, sustainable strategies that are based on market conditions and preferences, as well as on the balancing of interests inside the tourist destination.

Sustainable tourism concept The expansion of human activities at the end of the twentieth century had serious negative impacts on the environment. People began to look for new methods to overcome the negative impacts. Thus, the idea of sustainability was born.

Tourism, as a part of the global economy, makes no exception. Its massive development in recent years has had a number of negative consequences, such as the following (Marinov et al., 2009a):

Excessive tourist activity in certain places. This exhausts tourist resources, destroys the cultural heritage of the indigenous people and disrupts the ecological balance.

Reduced economic impact of tourism for some destinations. This is due to the development of standard, low-quality, seasonal and inexpensive forms of holiday tourist product.

Negative socio-cultural effects on the values, lifestyle and culture of the population in areas receiving tourists.

Negative attitude of the tourists towards holiday resorts that have turned into standardized tourist products for mass ‘consumption’. Sustainable tourist development requires management of all tourist resources. This type of management should be able to satisfy the economic, social and aesthetic needs. At the same time it should maintain cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life supporting ecosystems. Based on the principles of sustainability, we can conclude that the development of sustainable tourism within a certain territory requires large-scale, targeted and long-term actions in at least five areas (Marinov et al., 2009b).Tourism development should align with the potential of the respective territory.

1. Provision of equal rights and obligations for all participants in tourism development.

2. Active involvement of the local population in service processes. 3. Achieving consensus regarding the benefits, the losses and the

taken decisions among the community. 4. Conducting an active policy of dissemination of the concept of

sustainable development of tourism and 5. Formation of a positive attitude of the concerned groups towards this

development. A well-known and undisputed fact is that tourism, in all its diversity, is closely linked with the choice of a destination. When choosing a destination it is important to take into account not only the natural and anthropogenic resources of the destination but also many other features, as well as their management. Destination management is a term used to describe all the ways in which tourism influences the destination. This includes planning and control of tourism development, provision of infrastructure, visitor management, marketing, provision of information, business support, determination and compliance with the standards, and monitoring. It should cover all aspects of the visitor’s good experience in the chain of tourist value added and in accordance with the principles of the integrated quality management. An important component of destination management, if it is dedicated to sustainable development, is the determination of indicators related to the goals of sustainable development, as well as the determination of a process for monitoring these indicators. The World Тourism Оrganization (UNWTO) set the 5 criteria for the selection of indicators for the purposes of tourist destination management (WTO, 2007a):


Compliance of the indicator with the corresponding management question.

Opportunities for obtaining and analyzing the necessary information. Authenticity and reliability of the information. To be clear and easily understandable for the consumer. Comparability over time and by region.

Nature of destination management organisation (DMO)

In order to be competitive, destinations should provide visitors with wonderful experiences and benefits. These effects depend on many organizations working together as one. Destination management requires merging of various interests in order to achieve a common goal, to ensure the vitality and integrity of the destination now and in the future. Nowadays, in many destinations are constituted destinations management organisations (DMO) that guide their development. Traditionally responsible for the marketing of destinations, DMO are becoming strategic leaders in the destination development. This role requires leadership and coordination of management activities in the framework of a coherent strategy.

Figure 1: Destination management

Creating a suitable environment: Policy, legislation, regulations, taxation

The DMO Leading and co-ordinating

Elements of the destination Attractions Amenities

Accessibility Human resources

Image Price

Delivery on the ground Exceeding expectations

Marketing Getting people to visit

In reality, the DMO can best serve to facilitate the dialogue between the private sector, public sector, and other stakeholders who otherwise collaborate with difficulty or don't understand how their decisions affect tourist destinations in the long-term. Thanks to this unique ability, DMO is invaluable in the support of tourism development, especially in developing destinations where tourism is an important engine of the economy and a mechanism for building equitable social capacity. Destination management represents the coordinated management of all the elements forming the destination (attractions, facilities, access, marketing and pricing), (WTO, 2007b) figure. 1. The role of DMO for the tourist destination of the 21st century becomes more and more important. The global development of tourism and the growing competition worldwide, determine the need to change the function of DMO - from a marketing organization to a key management unit of the destination. Four common key strategic objectives should be considered by the DMO (Buhalis, 2000):

1. Improving the long-term prosperity of the local population 2. Making customers happy by maximizing their level of satisfaction 3. Maximum profitability of local businesses and maximizing multiplier

effects 4. Providing sustainable balance between economic benefits and socio-

cultural and environmental costs in order to optimize the adverse impacts of tourism The main purpose of the DMO is to create a master management plan and a marketing strategy for the destination. Thus, DMOs’ main function becomes being ‘Destination Developers’ and acting as catalysts and facilitators of the realization of tourism.

institutionalization and structuring of DMO - Models

In the international practice, there are numerous models for DMO, which depend on the way the sector is structured and managed in a given country. DMO can be institutionalized as: • A department of a local government institution • A partnership between several state institutions (based on the need for coordination between institutions from different spheres, for instance, infrastructure, transport, agriculture, etc.) • A specialized coordination unit composed of representatives of various governmental institutions • A state institution, which assigns functions to private contractors • A public-private partnership (PPP) with certain fixed functions (mostly non-profit) • A company (again, with clearly defined functions), entirely funded by private sector partners and/or commercial activities. The international practice shows that the best model for destination management in terms of the market economy is a form of public-private partnership. Tourism depends on the provision of private and public services, as well as on the use of private and public resources.


We can draw the conclusion that the institutions from the public and private sector, which are involved in tourism, are subjects of destination management and as such they should strive for consensus, coordination and directivity of their efforts.

Conceptual model of the DMO in Bulgaria

The territory of the destination (Forest park "Rhodope") falls into the central part of the Rhodope mountain in Bulgaria, in the administrative boundaries of Kuklen municipality, Plovdiv province. In the Southern parts of the municipal territories is located forest park “Rhodope”, spreading over 23 000 decares, at a hight ranging from 700 to 1700 m. It consists of four tourist zones: rest-house “Zdravetz” (1250m above sea level); “Koprivkite” (1350m above sea level);”Studenetz (1450m above sea level) and “Byala Cherkva” (1650-1700m above sea level). With ordinance of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests from 1963, „Byala Cherkva” is acknowledged as a mountain health resort. The sustainable management of forest park "Rhodope" through the development of environmentally friendly and sustainable forms of tourism requires the development of local DMO. Having in mind the international practice, the characteristics of the forest park "Rhodope" as a tourist destination, as well as the views expressed by stakeholders, a set of features that the management organization of forest park "Rhodope" should possess can be formulated. They are grouped into three main categories: Management emphasizing on coordination; Marketing; Provision of services. The activity of the DMO of forest park "Rhodope", will focus on the following areas:

Advertising forest park “Rhodope” as a sustainable tourist destination (brand management and image).

Organizing campaigns to support local businesses in Kuklen municipality.

Provision of information services (stewardship and management of Tourist Information Center and Tourist Information and Education Center).

Management of an Internet portal and a booking system for forest park “Rhodope”.

Coordination of the actions and behaviour of the participants in the destination.

Training and seminars (involving all interested parties). Business advice for the local tourism industry and the local small and

medium-sized businesses in the sphere of the production of tourism goods and services.

Launch of new products, development of routes aimed at exhibiting the park’s unique flora and fauna, combined with information and training in eco-friendly tourist behaviour.

Planning and conducting events (organizing cultural events in the destination, eco-forums, folk festivals, etc.).

Management and maintenance of attractions. Developing strategies, conducting studies and identifying steps for future

development.

Dmo “Forest park rhodope”-Organisational structure

An important aspect of the Organization of forest park "Rhodope" as a tourist destination is the institutionalization and the design of the organisation chart of the DMO, figure 2. An appropriate form of organization for the sustainable management of the destination forest park "Rhodope" is a public-private partnership in the form of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Figure 2: Organizational structure of DMO „Forest park Rhodope“

The purpose of this Association is to achieve sustainable development of the destination forest park "Rhodope" through consensual management and a programme approach. Besides the management body of the DMO, there will be created initiative groups in the various program activities. Considering the circumstances listed above, it is of great importance that the participants in this association (regarding the management activities in the forest park) are in a peculiar institution, which has representatives in the management of the newly created organization. If we want the establishment of the proposed PPP to achieve maximum and lasting effect, the relations between entities included in its


composition should be detailed and clearly spelled out in the Statute establishing the Unification. This very important for the partners document must define in detail the the powers belonging to each of them, the manner and means of contributing to the development of the partnership, respectively to the effective, appropriate and beneficial for everyone management of the forest park. Legislative context of the DMOS for development of sustainable tourism in BULGARIA as part of European union

The European Union (EU) pays more and more attention to the multilateral positive effects of tourism. First of all, tourism is acknowledged as an important economic activity, which contributes a great deal to economic growth, employment, and the advance of underdeveloped regions in the community. Second, tourism is seen as an important means for improving Europe’s image and popularising the European model across the world (Marinov, 2013). To achieve these goals, the actions favouring tourism can be grouped, based on four guidelines: (1) Encouragement of the competitive power of Europe’s tourist sector; (2) Encouragement of the development of sustainable, responsible and quality tourism; (3) Ratification of the reputation and image of Europe as a sum of sustainable and quality destinations; (4) Optimal use of the potential of EU policies and financial means for the development of tourism. During the period 2014-2020 EU intends to use a number of precautions and means to finance the adopted tourism development policy. The main guidelines, regarding sustainable development of tourism in the Republic of Bulgaria, are incorporated in two documents “National strategy for sustainable development of tourism in the Republic of Bulgaria 2009-2013” adopted by the Council of Ministers on 02.04.2009 and the project “ Strategy for sustainable development of tourism in the Republic of Bulgaria – Horizon 2030”. „The strategy represents a platform for coordinated, joint actions by all parties involved in tourism so that the country’s tourist potential is utilized” (MEE, 2009). The significance of this strategic document is that it set the foundation for a number of changes in tourist related legislation in Bulgaria. Despite this, it never closely examined how and by what means DMOs of different kinds can be created, following the example of advanced countries with developed tourism. The strategy for sustainable tourism development in Bulgaria according to Horizon 2030 is based on article 6, section 1of the Law on Tourism. It is a preliminary masterplan /as formulated by the ministry/, which will be developed in separate modules, tourist products and regions over periods of time. The document includes the creation of mechanisms and means for management and execution troughout its entire validity (2014-2030). The vision and mission of the destination Bulgaria are defined in this strategic document and are the basis for setting strategic goals and actions for their realization in all prioritized branches of tourism (seaside, mountains, eco-tourism, rural tourism, SPA, medical, hunting, cultural, golf etc.).

The strategy “Horizon 2030” adds to the previous document “National strategy for sustainable development of tourism in the Republic of Bulgaria 2009-2013”, in regard to sustainable tourism development and the achievement of a higher quality product with a recognizable brand and the successful promotion on the tourist markets. In order to achieve this, the document deals with the question of tourist zoning. It is one of the most complex topics in the tourism management of any country. Tourist zoning has different aspects including regional management policies, strategy, tourism financing, the activities of local authorities, economic activities of the local population, etc. The goal of Tourist zoning is the management of regions as separate destinations, encouraging partnerships on a regional level, supporting the founding and function of regional tourist organizations, management of tourist destinations considering common marketing, communications and information efforts. The organizations created for the management of tourist regions will be responsible for management, as well as marketing, the necessary actions for creating a brand, public relations, and advertising of the tourist region, plus management of tourist information centres on the territory of the specific region. After a careful examination of this Strategy, with the idea of sustainable development of the destination Bulgaria outlooking 2030, we can gain a new understanding of the diversification of Bulgaria’s tourist product and increase its quality. Opportunities are created to define tourist products and destinations on Bulgarian territory on a regional level, as well as conditions for planning and management on that same level. This will pave the way for decentralization and creation of local management structures for tourism, in accordance with the modern concepts for “Destination Management Organizations”.

CONCLUSION

If we take into account the strategic policies of the EU and those on Bulgarian territory, as well as the regulatory context for DMO, we can conclude that the future development of destinations depends mainly on their organizational management. This means that Bulgaria and its tourism are faced with a nuber of challenges like the introduction of tourist zoning in 2014, the creation of consolidated management structures on local level, and stimulation and popularisation of the incorporation of European standarts for sustainable tourism by the local tourism industry. DMOs are often the only defenders of the tourism industry – in that role they guarantee a decreased negative impact on the environment and the local communities, while creating opportunities for people exchange. In reality, DMO can best be used as a means for mediating the dialog between the private and public sectors, as well as other interested parties, who otherwise would have difficulties cooperating, without a sense of how their decisions affect the destination in the long term. The role of Destination Management Organizations in modern times becomes more and more important. Global tourism development tendencies, as well as new European strategies and policies “Europe 2020”, provide a central place for the DMO as a standard management unit for the destination. In the modern age of the Internet and significant cultural diversity DMO should aim at guaranteeing the prosperity of the local population; maximizing visitor satisfaction; minimizing the


negative impact of tourism by maintaining a sustainable balance between the economic benefits and the socio-cultural and ecological expences. REFERENCES

1. Buhalis, D. (2000), Marketing tne competitive destination of tne future, Journal of Tourism Menagement, 21, pp. 97-116.

2. Marinov, S. (2013), Strategy Europe 2020 and challenges for the Bulgarian tourism, Science and Economy, 1, (pp. 23-31)., Varna : EU-Varna.

3. Marinov, S. et al. (2009), Program for sustainable development of Varna municipality, FIL: Varna.

4. Ministry of Economy and Energy 2009. National strategy for sustainable tourism development 2009-2013, MEE: Sofia.

5. Ministry of Economy and Energy 2014. Strategy Horison 2030, MEE: Sofia 6. World Тourism Оrganization (2007), A Practical Guide to Tourism

Destination Management, UNWTO: Madrid.

Tourism Clusters as a Potentially Effective Tool

for Local Development and Sustainability

SGOURO MELISIDOU

Tourism and Hospitality Management, TEI of Athens, Greece

ATHENA PAPAGEORGIOU


DIMITRIOS PAPAYIANNIS


STELIOS VARVARESSOS



ABSTRACT

The spatial expansion of tourism and the growing diversification of this activity in the world create opportunities for countries, regions and communities to seek to bring about their development. A cluster is a progressive form of business network, which has strong business objectives focusing on improving sales and profits. It makes the exchange of information and technology possible, encouraging different ways of co-ordination and collaboration within them. Clustering is a process that enables the participants to exploit their synergies and the complementarities between their outputs, involving several benefits. (E.C., 2003). Clusters are vital for regional development increasing the competitiveness, the productivity and local businesses’ critical mass.

Cluster strategy emphasizes the need to exploit a home-grown source of competitive advantage. In some cases, local clusters and multinational enterprises can be interdependent. The local cluster provides important competitive advantages, whereas the multinational enterprise can provide the spark influence their creation and evolution. To extend Michael Porter’s notion of the role of government and local authorities in upgrading clusters (Porter, 1998), rules and regulations may actually influence the business case, enhance the local development and create a basic structure for implementing sustainability.

Hence, clusters are considered as being efficient management and marketing tools for tourist destinations and local economies. These tools must be used in appropriate manner in order to contribute at achieving competitive advantages through local development and setting sustainable development basis.

Key words: Tourism Clusters, Competiveness, Local Development, Sustainability 1. INTRODUCTION

In the last fifty years, tourism has been one of the activities with the highest expansion potentials in the world. It plays an important role as a local development strategy due to its potential for growth and for being a product that can only be consumed in “loco”. The spatial expansion of tourism and the growing diversification of this activity in the world create opportunities for countries, regions and communities to seek to bring about their development.

The tourism clusters analysis is adapted to the characteristics of tourism activity as it is based on the analysis of agglomerations, functional complementary, cooperative relationships and competition among actors. Otherwise, the traditional

cluster analysis is not clear when the objective is to evaluate local impacts concerning competitiveness, sustainability and social justice. One of the challenges for governments and stakeholders in charge of elaborating and implementing development policies for tourism activities is to enhance business practises such as clustering or alternatively to build a model of sustained development with competitiveness, sustainability and socioeconomic prosperities for the local societies.

The advantages of cooperation clusters in tourism activities allow for the effective exploitation of the collective efficiencies and/or the development of external companies from the enterprises (entrepreneurial cooperation, work productive specialization, collective infrastructure, service specialization etc.) and also make it possible to benefit from the increased ability to negotiate collectively with suppliers of inputs and components. In addition to these advantages, cooperation nets facilitate the development of new models, production processes and organization, the exchange of technical and market information, consortiums for buying and selling goods and services, as well as joint marketing campaigns. Interaction and synergy arising from joint actions have competitive advantages over the isolated actions of companies (Nordin, 2003, p. 19).

In this paper, the concept that a tourism cluster is a group of companies and institutions bound up to a tourism product or group of products is been investigated. Such companies and institutions are spatially concentrated and have vertical (within the tourism productive chain) and horizontal relationships (involving factor, jurisdiction and information exchange between similar agents dealing with a tourism product offer). They show an intern configuration that generally includes: a) a set of tourist attractions that draw non-resident attention; b) the concentration of tourism service companies: restaurants, accommodation, transport services, crafts, travel agencies etc.; c) sectors providing support to tourism services; d) suitable and low-cost infrastructure (roads, energy, sanitation, health services, etc.); e) companies and institutions that provide specialized qualification, information and financial capital; f) intern agents organized into class associations; g) government agencies and other regulating bodies that impact tourism agglomerations.

Firstly an approach will be made notionally the meaning of clusters in tourism. The representation of the “revised” Michael Porter’s “Diamond” model considering competitiveness and local development will be analysed to prove the dynamics of creating clusters in the Tourism industry.

In the third part, the effectiveness of tourism clusters in the local development perspective will be examined. Conclusively by presenting the benefits of practising clusters in the tourist market we will prove that clusters are considered as efficient management and marketing tools for tourist destinations and local economies. The main aim of the tourism clusters is to build partnership between local business, educational and research units and representatives of local government. All members including those from private and public sector work together for the most effective use of the tourism potential of the local destination.


2. CONCEPTS FOR CLUSTERS

A definition of the cluster concept, which is generally agreed upon seems that does not exist. The definition used in this paper will be based on Porter’s definition: “Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities”.

Porter points out that industrial production has to be understood as a system of interrelated players and operations. He embraces the idea that agglomerations are not a new phenomenon, but he argues that the reasons behind the behavioral pattern have changed. What used to be done in an attempt to get easier access to raw material, to cut costs or get access to logistics has now turned into a deliberate. The difference between clusters and other forms of cooperation within a network is sometimes difficult to see. A helpful description can be found in study by the OECD: The cluster concept focuses on the linkages and interdependencies among actors in the value chain in producing products and services. Clusters differ from other forms of cooperation and networks in that the actors involved in a cluster are linked in a value chain. The cluster concept goes beyond “simple” horizontal networks in which firms, operating on the same end-product market and belonging to the same industry group, co-operate on aspect such as R&D, demonstration programs, collective marketing or purchasing policy. Clusters are often cross-sectoral (vertical and/or lateral) networks, made up of is similar and complementary firms specializing around a specific link or knowledge base in the value chain.”

A cluster is a collection of business or industries within a particular region that are interconnected by their products, their markets and other businesses or organisations, such as suppliers, with which they interact. Porter defines clusters as ‘geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, specialised suppliers, service providers, firms in related industries, and associated institutions (for example, universities and trade associations) in particular fields that compete but also co-operate’ (Porter, 1998: 197). Clustering is a process that enables the participants to exploit their synergies and the complementarities between their outputs, involving several benefits. A cluster is a progressive form of business network, which has strong business objectives focusing on improving sales and profits. It makes the exchange of information and technology possible, encouraging different ways of co-ordination and collaboration within them (European Commission, 2003). Clusters are vital for regional development increasing the performance, innovative capacity and local businesses’ critical mass.

Clusters involve several benefits (Michael, 2003; Poon, 2002; Saxena, 2005): economies of scale; a focus on cooperation and innovation; increased synergies and productivity; knowledge transfer; joint marketing; increased competitiveness and sustainable competitive advantage; all these create opportunities for synergy and mutual reinforcement to achieve the main aim of a destination: a rewarding holiday experience for its visitors. Tourism industry face

the challenges of renewing business models to maintain competitiveness in the global economy, and networking and product innovations are typical responses to these challenges (Kokkonen & Tuohino, 2007).

The four key features of the Cluster are identified as: 1. Cooperation; 2. Competition 3. Trust; 4. Networking opportunities

Michael (2003) highlights the importance of the ‘structure’ and the ‘scale’ of clusters, especially when applied to the tourism context. He also focuses on the ‘creation of economic and social opportunities in small communities through the development of clusters of complementary firms that can collectively deliver a bundle of attributes to make up a specialised regional product’ (Michael, 2003: 3). Hence, clusters are considered as being efficient management and marketing tools for tourist destinations. These tools must be used in appropriate manner in order to contribute at achieving sustainable tourism development and related business objectives (Tinsley & Lynch, 2007).

Figure 1: Tourism Cluster Representation

According to the characteristics of the tourism cluster, local development programs consider it as a local strategy for combating regional disparities and


social inequality. Porter (1999, p. 230) emphasizes that tourism does not depend only on the appeal of the main attraction (beaches or historical sites), but also on the comfort and service of hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, airports, other modes of transport and so on. As the representation above (fig. 1) shows, the parts of the agglomerate are generally effectively dependent on each other. A bad performance of one may compromise the success of the others.

3. CLUSTERS AND COMPETITIVENESS IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY

The concept of industry clusters and the notion that they create competitive advantage is not a new framework to explain regional economies and to assist policy-making in regions or nations. Cluster theory originates from the "industrial district" of Marshall's agglomeration economies (Marshall, 1920). This early framework argued that when firms are closely located in geographic proximity they generate positive externalities and economies of scale, and then these agglomeration effects can contribute to their overall productivity. A major breakthrough for the cluster concept was Porter's cluster theory and competitiveness in The Competitive Advantage of Nations (Porter, 1990). Porter has contributed significantly to the literature by providing a comprehensive understanding of national and regional competitiveness and by broadening the concept of industrial clusters. Porter defined the cluster as "a geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities" (1998b: 199).

Porter (1990) states that clusters are inherently local yet must be globally

competitive, so he emphasizes the co-locating of firms and complementarities and a supportive home-environment for business success. Based on these elements of Porter's cluster theory its application to tourism can be seen as a useful strategy in regional (local) development. Porter's diamond model proposes that there are four sources of national and local competitive advantage and their interactions: Factor (input) conditions, firm strategy, structure and rivalry, demand conditions, and related and supporting industries (Figure 2). Taken together, all components of clusters represent economic dynamism. Porter's theory of competitiveness and the concept of cluster have been considered one of the most successful and influential theories or models of local development (Isserman, 1998). The cluster concept has been brought forward to explain industrial dynamics and in turn Porter's theories help address which factors can achieve optimal competitiveness in national and regional development.

Figure 2: Tourism Clusters theory based on Porter’s “Diamond” Model and its contribution in competitiveness and local development

Factor of Tourism Cluster International Context Cluster Actors Domestic Context Supporting Networks/ Interconnections Source: By the authors

Finally, the main aim of the tourism clusters is to build partnership between local business, educational and research units, local authorities, and representatives of local governments. All members including those from private and public sector work together for the most effective use of the tourist potential of the local destination.

The Tourism Cluster is established to:

Create common products or services; Make joined purchases of materials, services or technology; Use subsidized advisory services and encourage participation in the

trainings. Create common brand and undertake promotion of the region;

COMPLIMENTARY CONDITIONS

DEMAND CONDITION

CORE RESOURCES AND ATTRACTIONS

TOURISM

CLUSTERS

GOVERNMENT

UNIVERSITIES COMPANIES

LOCAL AUTHORITIES

DESTINATION MANAGEMENT L

O C A L T S O U U S R T I A S I M N A D B E I V L E I L T O Y P M E N T

C O T M O P U E R T I I S T M I

V E N E S S


Enhance the tourist product and the local destination. 4. FEATURES AND BENEFITS OF CLUSTERING PROCESSES IN THE TOURISM MARKET

The main problems, the cluster faces is that the members lack the sense of belonging to it. A possible solution to the unwillingness to be affiliated or cooperate within the cluster lies in raising the level of knowledge regarding the benefits of the membership. Some of the benefits of clustering in the tourism industry are presented in the following table: Table 1: Potential benefits of the clustering process in the tourism market

FEATURES POTENTIAL BENEFITS

By creating a shared mass of technical competencies, market intelligence, as well as human and financial resources, organizations can be more prepared to address unexpected events.

Reduce risk and deal with uncertainly

The access of competitors to strategic resources is curtailed thanks to the greater operative strength or thanks to their joining the partnership.

Block or co opt competition

The greater dimensions covered (purchases, booking, sales, ect.) lead to a lesser incidence of unit costs. Operative effectiveness increases. Greater capacity to negotiate with intermediaries is achieved.

Create ecomomies of scale

The collaboration spirit allows greater distribution of specialization. There is more space for operating in market niches, thanks to less internal competition.

Opportunities to develop purpose economies

Companies joined together in partnerships canmove in larger markets.

Effective market control

Source : Nordin, S. 2003 p.27-28. 5. TOURISM CLUSTERS, LOCAL DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY

The interaction of the consumption of the tourism product with its local base is one of the main characteristics of the activity, showing the fundamental role it plays in the strategies for local development. In most economic activities, it is the

The circulation of knowledge enhances the diffusion of technologies and the development of new operative techniques. Brands are reinforced at company level and at destination level, both towards the customers and the suppliers. Operating in collaboration generates a healthycompetition among companies that tends to raiseboth product quality and management skills.

Grow of technological and organizational know – how Reinforcement of image and notoriety Company growth both in terms of product quality and process efficiency

There cannot be an effective marketing action for the destination without the support o fan integrated and coordinated supply system. Partnerships and the distribution of functions allow creating innovative products, renewing production processes and giving life to new creative skills.

Conditions for an effective area marketing Creation of synergies

The strong inter - dependence between tourism and all economic activities enhances the diffusion of the acquired benefits to the entire territorial economic system.

Positive effects on local economies/ Local Development

The ability to have an important contribution on the protection of the environment and the sustainable development of local territories should be highlighted. The tourism Clusters practitioners should communicate, cooperate and agree on the fact that a high quality of the area’s natural attractions is a strong competitive advantage, which constitutes the key strength of the area.

Potential Sustainable tourism development


product that reaches the consumer, but when it comes to tourism, it is the opposite in that the consumer seeks for tourism services. Because of this characteristic, tourism has a heavy impact on local development. From this perspective, tourism and local development are interconnected because they take place if the regional socio-cultural and environmental characteristics are respected where the activity takes place.

The central idea of development includes a concept net made up of evolution, inclusion, participation, solidarity, production and competitiveness, which are mutually strengthened or directly opposed to movements of concentration, competition, exclusion, poverty and imbalance, amongst other things. Evolution and interaction are the focal points of the concept of development, a set of coordinated participation processes for continuously improved discussion and increased planning capability and the ability to gather economic, social and environmental resources in the short and long term, whenever possible, owing to joint strategies that otherwise depend on arbitration and conciliation (OCDE, 2001).

The local development concept also includes to complementary ideas related to territory. One of them refers to a concrete and delimited space, which is linked to the idea of constancy and inertia, and can be identified as a limited area such as a municipality, micro-region etc. The other is the abstract space of social relationships and indicates movement and interaction between social groups that either cooperate or organize opposition to accommodate their common interests (Fischer, 2002). The idea of movement and interaction can be witnessed for as long as the territory has to take the interdependence between nature and its use into consideration, including human actions, i.e. work and politics (Santos, 1999).

Three elements of local development that stem from tourism are: society, the environment and the economy, which are integrated and mutually strengthened in a context where social and cultural diversity, as well as productive differences, should be used as resources to generate changes and local development.

The cluster’s mission included in the Strategy is fostering socio-economic development in the local territories by improving activities occurring in the tourism sector. This is possible by applying principles of sustainable development into all levels of cluster functioning as it gathers main tourism businesses and other organisations working in close relation with tourism sector. Both, winning of the contests and actions taken on sustainable development, confirm the validity of efforts to make the destination friendly to residents, tourists and enterprisers. This idea will bind efforts to create a balance between environmental, social and economic aspects of regional development. Still a lot of effort is needed for gaining knowledge about sustainable development among entrepreneurs and the local community before actions in this direction is taken (Porter, 1998).

The most important benefits of clustering in tourism listed below:

Acquisition of new clients due to the green trend in the industry by creation of green brands/labels to stand out;

Easier founding if the Sustainable Development principles are being applied into companies strategy;

Lowering the cost of the companies activities by improving their efficiency; Encouraging qualified employees to join the companies as there are

becoming more attractive; Higher competitiveness and quality in the tourist product/ services; Long-term development of the region; More advanced technologies.

The tourism clusters may play an important role in this process. Since the Association brings together representatives of businesses, the cluster can become a platform for introducing sustainability to local entrepreneurs. It’s easier to facilitate the promotion of sustainable development, because the local communities have already done a lot in the field of sustainability. The benefits coming out of applying the sustainable development into functioning of a company are vast. 6. CONCLUSIONS

The cluster’s mission included in the Strategy is fostering socio-economic

development in the local territories by improving activities occurring in the tourism sector. This is possible by applying principles of sustainable development into all levels of cluster functioning as it gathers main tourism businesses and other organisations working in close relation with tourism sector. Both, winning of the contests and actions taken on sustainable development, confirm the validity of efforts to make the destination friendly to residents, tourists and enterprisers. This idea will bind efforts to create a balance between environmental, social and economic aspects of regional development. The main aim of the tourism clusters is to build partnership between local business, educational and research units, local authorities, and representatives of local governments. All members including those from private and public sector work together for the most effective use of the tourist potential of the local destination.

Tourism Clusters are considered as management and marketing tools and they are tremendously effective in local development systems. The key points of their contribution in the local development considered as:

Local development seldom takes place in isolation but is systemic. The notion of a cluster as a ‘reduced scale innovation system’

Clusters are networks of production of strongly interdependent firms linked to each other in a value-adding production chain.

Clusters mostly encompass strategic alliances with universities, research institutes, knowledge-intensive business services, bridging institutions


(brokers, consultants) and customers. This bears innovation and use of new technologies.

Successful Cluster practises are fostering the implementation of sustainable tourism development.

Conclusively the main task of creating tourism clusters should be assisting the implementation of proposed principles, and their promotion to enhance local development and create a potential sustainable development basis.

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Local Gastronomy and Tourist Behavior:

Research on Domestic Tourism in Greece

EFSTATHIOS VELISSARIOU

Department of Business administration – Division of Hospitality management at the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece

EFTHALIA VASILAKI

Hellenic Open University, Greece

ABSTRACT

The Greek culinary history spans over 4,000 years and is based on quality and fresh products produced in the country and largely characterize the components of the Mediterranean Diet. Greek food beyond taste has a distinct philosophy. The gathering around the table in any dining area is a social aggregation. The gastronomy is part of the tourism product of a region and can enrich and enhance the travel experience of tourists and create a memory that endures. This paper explores specific issues to relating the behavior of Greek tourists towards gastronomy during their stay in tourist destinations in Greece. The results of primary research showed that Greek tourists during their trips often purchase local products, taste local flavors and are interested in learning recipes of the local cuisine when they visit a destination. Tourists totally agree that tasting food and drinks in a destination helps to create a memory that endures and that they deliberately dine in restaurants offering local cuisine, but do not usually look for information about gastronomy in the travel destination before travelling. Tourists agree that local cuisine is an important part of the culture of the region and that the taste experience is important to the overall experience of the journey. According to the gastronomic services in tourism destinations, tourists are interested mainly in traditional restaurants, the local products, the local cuisine, but at the same time a significant percentage of tourists order in restaurants flavors and dishes that are familiar to them. The fact that female travelers were more positive towards local gastronomy than males constitutes an interesting approach. Differentiation of Greek tourism products through traditional and creative cuisine can create a quality gourmet product portfolio. Appropriate promotion and networks development can lead to overall satisfaction of tourists to travel and can become an incentive of tourist attraction. Therefore an appropriate network and promotion program must be developed.

Key words: Local Gastronomy, Food, Tourism, Behavior, Greece


1. INTRODUCTION

Greek culinary history spans over 4,000 years and is based on quality and fresh products produced in the country and largely characterize the components of the Mediterranean Diet. Greek food beyond taste has a distinct philosophy. The gathering around the table in any dining area is a social aggregation. In ancient Greece, the Athenians believed that the time of dining is an occasion to take food for the spirit as well as the body. Dinning is an opportunity for a social event, for communication between members at the table and meals usually last some time.

In recent years, food Tourism has grown considerably and has become one of the most dynamic and creative segments of tourism. Both destinations and tourism companies are aware of the importance of gastronomy in order to diversify tourism and stimulate local, regional and national economic development (UNWTO, 2012).

The study of food, eating, and culinary institutions became a burgeoning subfield of sociological and anthropological research in recent years (Erik Cohen & Nir Avieli, 2004). In the tourism world there are influential destinations whose brand image is connected, with varying levels of intensity, to gastronomic values. By way of example, it is possible to give a non-exhaustive list that includes, among others, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, USA, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Chile, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, Bali, China or Singapure. It is significant, for example, that the Mediterranean diet of Spain, Greece, Italy and Morocco was included in UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in November 2010. Javier Blanco Herranz 2012.

Local food can have an important role to play in sustainable tourism as a result of its ability to satisfy a complex range of demands and especially for tourists’ demands for iconic products that appear to say something about a region’s place and culture (Sims, 2010). Based on these perspectives it can be argued that local and regional food is a feature that can add value to a destination (Telfer & Wall, 1996; Handszuh, 2000), and furthermore may contribute to the sustainable competitiveness of a destination (Crouch&Ritchie, 1999). From the preceding perspectives it is apparent that food tourism has considerable potential to enhance visitor experiences and to contribute to the branding and competitive marketing of destinations. It is, however, important to insure that the authentic cuisine of a region and marketable local and regional foods are approached with a delicate balance. Gerrie E. Du Rand, Ernie Heath & Nic Alberts (2003).

The present paper will help to identify the characteristics and behavior of domestic tourists in Greece towards local gastronomy, in the tourist destination during their trip.

2. GASTRONOMY AND TOURISM Gastronomy is the art of selecting, preparing, serving and enjoying tasty

food. Through the centuries gastronomy proved to have a greater cultural influence compared to Linguistics or other effects. Today the world can be divided into specific culinary regions, dominated by separate Cuisines using common cooking practices. In Europe there are two different food cultures, the “south” rich in local

dishes and the “north” which is more functional and seeks to meet the basic need for food using recognized brands. However, the “northern” consumers are becoming increasingly receptive to quality local products. (Parrott et al. 2002).

Regarding the demand for gastronomy, figures and indications show an upward trend. According to related research (Mintel, 2009), in recent years an increasing number of tourists are becoming increasingly involved with gastronomy on their trips. Gastronomy attracts tourists with a special interest in food. These are known as Gastro-tourist (Robinson et al. 2011). Gastronomy as a tourist product includes a mixture of products, services and activities that highlight the typical products and dishes of a place, the talent and creativity of those who prepare and the uniqueness and tradition of the place, so they offer visitors a comprehensive and memorable travel -culinary experience. Offering tasty cuisine composes enjoyable experience, part of the cultural identity of a place and thus an important source of satisfaction for any tourist, whether or not he has any special interest in gastronomy.

The relationship between gastronomy and tourism is quite complex, since food is included in the travel experience in different ways. Gastronomy helps in upgrading the tourist product and travel experience. Gastronomy enhances tourist satisfaction in their chosen destination even though it was not exclusive to their travel motivation (SETE, 2009). The production of well-known local products can be an incentive in attracting tourists, creating pleasant associations between the product and the place (Parrott et al. 2002). The consumption of local products which are considered as 'authentic' and qualitative is a means of developing rural areas. The advantages of such initiatives can be the improvement of the economic and technical infrastructure, and the improvement of the characteristics of the human and social capital. The development of local products means even development of associated enterprises and thus improvement of many sectors of the local economy and while enhancing development (Lamprianidis, 2003). Consumers are interested in knowing the origin of products and the method of production, because in this way they ensure their health and safety, and the safety of their children. The shift to 'pure' products arises from nostalgia for the past which was dominated by traditional production methods (Ilbery et al. 1998).

As for the gastronomic tourism experience, it can be defined as the evaluation carried out by the tourist on a number of attributes (attractiveness of the food and environment, quality of service), after a stay in a tourist destination where the tourist engaged in an activity related to gastronomy. The tourist’s perceived value of a particular destination or establishment is therefore multidimensional (Javier Blanco Herranz, 2012). Consumer demands for foods perceived to be “traditional” and “local” can also be viewed as linked to a quest for authenticity. Debates about the meaning and validity of authenticity have played a central role in the tourism literature with Taylor claiming that “there are at least as many definitions of authenticity as there are those who write about it” (Taylor, 2001, p. 8). Taylor (2001) sees the tourist’s desire for authenticity as a result of a world where people feel they have become alienated from nature, and where everyday life is viewed as increasingly inauthentic. Thus, local food can be an asset to integrated tourism development as a result of its ability to symbolize place and culture, provide amoral “feel-good” factor associated with its consumption and enable visitors to experience a sense of connection to their destination – both during and


after their visit. (Rebecca Sims, 2009) However, local food can also contribute to the experience of existential authenticity. As described by Wang (1999), existential authenticity is about identity formation and the chance to experience a more intense feeling of connection with ourselves and the world around us.

3. GREEK GASTRONOMY PORTFOLIO

Greek cuisine has four secrets: good quality fresh ingredients, correct use of flavorings (herbs) and spices, the famous Greek olive oil and simplicity. The climate conditions of the country favors the natural development of the cultivation of local products, keeping the aroma, the flavor, and the nutrients of the products. The most familiar elements of Greek gastronomy are the Mediterranean Diet, the Greek breakfast, the Greek Salad, but also many local traditional products.

3.1 The Greek Breakfast

The “Greek Breakfast” program is designed by the Hellenic Chamber of

Hotels which has been in operation since 2010 and whose aim is to enrich the breakfast offered in Greek hotels with pure and unique Greek products as well as with traditional local dishes from every region of Greece. The aim of the “Greek Breakfast” program is to give Greek hotel guests the chance to know the gastronomic wealth of our country and taste at breakfast the innumerable Greek products and dishes which are at the heart of the Mediterranean Diet. The Mediterranean Diet is not just a modern dietary trend but is according to UNESCO the “intangible cultural heritage of mankind” (Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, 2010)

The Greek breakfast is based in simple combinations of foods, the use of more natural raw materials as much as possible and cooked lightly wholesome dishes. The common dishes served in the Greek breakfast are pancakes, Trahanas42, Greek brioche, sheep yoghurt, local cheeses, different types of bread and other dishes depending on the geographical region. Bread and olive oil are two of the basic ingredients in the cycle of time which come from the past of our Greek land and are still to this day a part of our dietary foundation. This is the reason why wheat and olive where chosen literally and symbolically, to capture in the form of a seal, the communicative image of the program “Greek Breakfast” (h2concept, 2013).

3.2 Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet is a way of eating which is followed by the people of the Mediterranean countries. This diet came from the inhabitants of Crete and southern Italy in the 60s. Specifically, the Mediterranean diet includes fiber (vegetables, fruits, potatoes, legumes, bread, cereals, nuts), dairy products (cheese, yogurt ) in small quantities, minimally processed foods, rare red meat,

42 Trahana, is a hard, sun-dried grain product made by combining cracked wheat, bulgur, or flour with buttermilk or yogurt, which makes the “sour” kind, or with whole milk, to make the “sweet” kind (Kochilas Diana, 2013).

small amounts of fish and poultry, and olive oil. The objective of the Mediterranean diet is the consumption of a small quantity of saturated fats, as opposed to higher consumption of fiber, carbohydrate, and monounsaturated fatty acids in general.

The benefits of the Mediterranean diet may be the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers and diabetes. Moreover the Mediterranean diet contributes to human longevity. Other benefits are that it contribute to eating a small amount of daily calories, stimulates the body and helps good bowel function. The Mediterranean diet combined with exercise can be a source of health and beauty (Marazioti Iina, 2008).

3.3. The Greek country salad

The Greek country salad is known abroad as Greek salad. The salad is a symbol of Mediterranean cuisine and products of high nutritional value. One of the key ingredients of this salad is the feta-cheese. The consumption of Greek salad can be a complete meal especially in the summer, because it contains a lot of raw vegetables, the feta cheese and the oil witch has essential fatty acids.

3.4. Greek tradit ional products

In modern international cuisine there are several traditional Greek products, which are characteristic of Greek cuisine. In 1992 according to the regulation 2081/92, the European Union first adopted the system for the protection of geographical indications and the designations of origin of agricultural products and foodstuffs and according to the regulation 2082/92 the rules on the certificates of specific character for agricultural products and foodstuffs. Many Greek product are geographical indicated, or with a designations of origin. Especially Greece has 88 products with Protected Designation of Origin which are 27 olive oils, 20 different cheeses, 23 vegetables and pulses, 10 different olive varieties, varieties of honey, the traditional avgotaraho of Mesolonghi (salted flat-head mullet fish roe), the Cretan rusks, sweet beverages such as the Naxos citron drink and the kumquat liqueur from Corfu, the "Tomataki Santorinis" (cherry-tomato of Santorini), the Kozani crocus, the tangerines and mastic from Chios (Ministry of RD&F, 2014).

4. RESEARCH FIELD AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PARTICIPANTS

The purpose of the research was to study the behavior of domestic tourists in relation to gastronomy and to provide suggestions for the development of culinary tourism and tourist satisfaction. Specifically, the main research objective was to identify specific information concerning the behavior of Greek tourists interested in the local gastronomy. Another research target was the identification of the activities that involved tourists interested in local gastronomy. Additionally the possible relationship between gastronomy and travel experience was investigated.

The survey was conducted in the spring of 2013 mainly in the Athens area and gathered a total of 141 exploitable questionnaires. Requirements for the completion of the questionnaire were to be a resident of Greece, to be over 18 years old and take at least one trip per year (be active in tourism). More females (61.7%) replied to the questionnaire compared to males (38.3%). The largest age group of the sample was the age group 27-36 year olds at a rate of 46.1%. The


age group 37-46 year olds represents a rate of 27.66%, while the age group of 47-56 year olds accounted for 16.31%. The age groups 18 to 26 (4.96%), 57 to 66 (4.26%) and finally the age group of over 67 (0.71%) gathered smaller percentages.

Table 1: Age groups of the participants in the survey

Age Group Percentage 18-26 9.96 27-36 46.10 37-46 27.66 47-56 16.31 57-66 4.26

Over 67 0.71 Regarding the marital status of the respondents, the majority were married

with children (43.26%), while the unmarried accounted for 41.13%. The professional profile of respondents involved mainly "Employees in the private sector" (52.48%). Second most frequent profession was "public servants" at a rate of 30.5%, while the unemployed accounted for 6.38%, professionals and entrepreneurs for 5.68%, students for 1.42% and the “other” profession for 3.55%.

The majority of the sample was with a high school degree at a rate of 31.21%. A large percentage of respondents were technical school graduates (23.4%). The secondary school graduates represented 21.28%, and a significant percentage of 18.44% were postgraduates. Finally the respondents with basic education represented 5.67% of the sample.

Referring to companionship, the majority of respondents stated that they travel with a partner / spouse or friend at a rate of 48.23%. About 38.3% travels “with the family”. A small percentage responded that they usually travel “with a group of friends” (11.35%), while a very small percentage of 2.13% expressed they travel usually alone. The fact that no one replied that they usually travel with organized groups (package tour) within Greece, was very interesting.

These results are similar to two relevant studies (TIA, 2007 & Mintel, 2009), according to which the Gastro-tourist is mostly in the group of 30 to 50 year olds and to a lesser extent in the age group of 51 to 64 year olds. This kind of tourist has mostly higher professional status, a higher income and education and loves adventure and culture. The Gastro-tourists are experienced tourists and spend an adequate amount of money on culinary activities.

5. RESULTS PRESENTATION

The main resul ts of the invest igat ion in re lat ion to the search f ie lds are presented in th is chapter. To the quest ion about the “Part ic ipat ion on the local l i festyle in the tour is t dest inat ion”

( Integrat ion wi th the locals, the local music or dance) the major i ty of respondents repl ied “very l ikely” at a rate of 52.48%, 18.44% of

the sample chose “Almost l ikely” . “Neutral” appears 4.89%. The fact that the females responded posit ively at a rate of 62.1% compared

to 37.0% of the males ( table 1) , was remarkable.

Table 2: Participation on the local lifestyle in the tourist destination

Answer Percentage of responses

Males' responses Responses of females

Very likely 52.48 37.0 62.1 Likely 18.44 22.2 16.1 Neutral 14.89 22.2 10.3 Almost unlikely 7.80 9.3 6.9 Unlikely 6.38 9.3 4.6 Total 99.99 100 100

During the stay at the tourist destination, the possibility to visit historical and

cultural sites at a rate of 66.7%, to go Tracking or Hiking at a rate of 50.3% and to attend shows, concerts etc. at a rate of 48.2% is “very likely” (table 3).

Table 3: Activities during the stay in the destination place

Answer Visiting of historical and cultural sites

Tracking or Hiking Attendance of Shows, Concerts etc.

Very likely 66.67 50.35 48.23 Likely 19.15 10.64 20.57 Neutral 6.38 17.73 9.22 Almost unlikely 2.84 8.51 11.36 Unlikely 4.96 12.77 10.64 Total 100 100 100.02

However engaging in activities connected with gastronomy garnered low

rates. To the question “if they consider it possible to participate in culinary activities such as cooking classes, exhibitions, visits to production sites and other culinary events, 41.8% considers it “unlikely”. And to this question the involvement of females in culinary activities was far greater than that of males (table 4).

Table 4: Participation in culinary activities


Males’ answers Females’ answers

Very likely 19.86 11.1 25.3 Likely 9.93 13.0 8.0 Neutral 10.64 11.1 10.3 Almost unlikely 17.73 25.9 12.6 Unlikely 41.84 38.9 43.7 Total 99,99 100 100


To special question concerning the preference for breakfast, the respondents were given three different options (a) the European - Continental breakfast, (b) the American breakfast and (c) the Greek breakfast with local dishes (table 5).

68.79% of the sample expresses a preference for the Greek breakfast with

local dishes. About 19.15% shows a preference for the Continental breakfast, despite the fact that the American breakfast contains additional dishes compared to the European breakfast. The American breakfast seems to be preferred by only 12.06% of the sample.

Table 5: Breakfast preferences

Answer Percentage of

responses Males’ answers

Females’ answers

Greek Breakfast 68.79 70.4 67.8 Continental Breakfast

19.15 13.0 23.0

American Breakfast 12.06 16.7 9.2 When asked if during their stay respondent experienced local food and wine,

the answer "very likely" reached the impressive figure of 71.63%. The answer “almost likely” to try some local flavours in the visited place was 17.73%. The smallest percentage frequency displays the option “not likely” with just 1.42% (table 6).

Table 6: Tasting local wine and food flavours


Males’ answers

Females’ answers

Very likely 71.63 68.5 73.6 Almost Likely 17.73 18.5 17.2 Neutral 6.38 7.4 5.7 Almost unlikely 2.84 1.9 3.4 Unlikely 1.42 3.7 0.0 Total 100 100 100

The answer for the chance to visit the local market at the place of destination

(table 7), garnered exactly the same percentage as the previous question (71.63%). Of interest is also that the male response to this question was very high (70.4%).

Table 7: Possibility to visit the local market


Males’ answers

Females’ answers

Very likely 71.63 70.4 72.4 Likely 16.31 11.1 19.5 Neutral 6.38 11.1 3.4 Almost unlikely 2.13 5.6 0.0 Unlikely 3.55 1.9 4.6 Total 100 100.1 99.9

To the statement “When I travel I often buy food for the home”, 39%

responded that they “Totally agree”. The female response at a rate of 47.1%, was much greater compared to the male response (25.9%).

Table 8: When I travel often buy food for home Answer Percentage of

responses Males’ answers Females’ answers

Totally agree 39.01 25.9 47.1 Agree 22.7 24.1 21.8 Neither agree nor disagree

14.18 20.4 10.3

Disagree 7.09 9.3 5.7 Totally disagree 17.02 20.4 14.9 Total 100 100.1 99.9

To collect information about the gastronomy of the tourist destination before

the trip is very likely only for the 25.2% of the participants. On the contrary for 33.3% it is unlikely. The females are more prepared compared to the males regarding the gastronomy at the destination (Table 9).

Table 9: Collecting information about the gastronomy in the tourist destination


Males’ answers

Females’ answers

Very likely 25.23 18.5 29.9 Likely 13.48 14.8 12.6 Neutral 14.89 18.5 12.6 Almost unlikely 12.77 13.0 12.6 Unlikely 33.3 35.2 32.2 Total 100 100 100

Information about the recipes of the local cuisine shows to stimulates the interest of 42.55% of the sample who totally agree and another 26.95% “agree” to learn recipes of the local cuisine.


Table 10: I like to learn recipes of the local cuisine when I visit a destination


Males’ answers

Females’ answers


11.35 11.1 11.5

Disagree 7.8 11.1 5.7 Totally disagree 11.35 11.1 11.5 Total 100 100 100

The answers to the question of whether the testing of food and beverages helps to create memories of the place of destination were impressive. The majority of respondents (54.61%) totally agree and another 20.57% agree. The responses of the females were higher compared to the responses of the male population of the research (table 11). Table 11: Tasting foods and beverages in a destination helps to create a memory

that endures in time


Males’ answers

Females’ answers


9.22 13.0 6.9


The response to the next question about “whether they would visit a restaurant with local flavours on purpose” was also positive. About 49.6% totally agree and another 22% agree. The two figures combined give approximately 72% while the responses of females accumulate to 86% (table 12).

Table 12: Visit on purpose restaurants offering local flavours


Males’ answers

Females’ answers


14.89 18.5 12.6


The responses to the question "Do you believe that it is better to order

flavours that are familiar in the travel destination” was particularly interesting. About 28.4% totally agree and another 14.2% agree. The fact that the males agree at a rate of 35.2% and the females at a much greater rate i.e.47.1% was also interesting (table 13). Table 13: ‘I think it's better to order something that is familiar to me in a restaurant’


Males’ answers

Females’ answers


18.44 27.8 12.6


The question that brought the largest percentage agreement at a rate of

75.2% was if tourists believe that local flavours are an important part of the culture of the region. In female responses the rate of “totally agree” and "agree" accumulated to 93%.

Table 14: ‘I believe that local flavours are an important part of the culture of the region'

Answer Percentage of

responses Males’ answers

Females’ answers


7.09 9.3 5.7

Disagree 0.71 1.9 0 Totally disagree 1.42 1.9 1.1 Total 100 100 100


The question whether the respondent believe that the dining experience is

important for the satisfaction of the journey, 50.3% replied that they “Totally agree”. In addition, it is worth noting that 21.3% agree that taste satisfaction relates substantially to the overall impression of the trip.

Table 15: “The dining experience is important for the satisfaction of the journey”


Males’ answers

Females’ answers


13.48 20.4 9.2


Regarding the question whether gastronomy upgrades the overall travel experience, 29.08% responded “Very much” and another 46.8% responded “much”.

Table 16: The gastronomy upgrades the overall travel experience

Answer Percentage of responses Very much 29.08 Much 46.81 Neither much nor little 17.02 A Little 4.26 Not at All 2.84 Total 100

Finally those who believe that gastronomy upgrades their travel experience,

to an extent of “very” and “very much” replied to the next question of how this is achieved. The opinion that dominates at a rate of 51.4% is that through the local flavors they get to know the history, tradition and culture of the destination. High percentage holds the view that by simply enjoying new flavors (35.51%) and 12.15% consider that the travel experience is upgraded, because they have the opportunity to taste fresh ingredients.

Table 17: How gastronomy upgrade the travel experience By: Percentage of

responses Knowing the history, tradition and culture of the destination.

51,4

Enjoying new flavors 35,51 Tasting fresh ingredients 12,15 Other 0,93 6. CONCLUSIONS

The results of the survey showed a considerable interest of domestic tourists for gastronomy, which confirms the figures from the Global report on Food Tourism from UNWTO (2012). During their stay the Greek tourists at a rate of 89.4% are likely or very likely to taste local food and wine, to visit the local market and to buy foods for the home. On the contrary, only 25.2% of the travelers are very likely to collect information about the gastronomy in the tourist destination before the trip.

Tourists are interested in culture and history of the destination and are very likely to visit historical and cultural attractions (66.7%), to attend performances (theatre, concert) to go hiking or trekking, but also to experience the local character of a destination and the local way of life by contacting the local population and experiencing the local music and dance. On the contrary, engaging in activities connected with gastronomy, such as participation in exhibitions, cooking classes, visits to production sites and other culinary events, is considered as unlikely at a rate of 41.8%.

During their stay tourists will intentionally visit a restaurant with local flavors at a rate of 71.6% and will be interested in the recipes of the local cuisine of the particular destination at a rate of 69.5%.

Tourists believe at a rate of 75.2%, that the local flavors are an important

part of the culture of the region. It should be noted that this figure was the highest in the entire investigation. But at the same time a significant number of tourists (at a rate of 42.5%) agrees that it is better to order something that is familiar in a local restaurant. This statement is very interesting, because in the sociology of food, the dimension of familiarity and strangeness implicitly underlies Fischler’s (1988) distinction between the ‘‘neophobic’’ and ‘‘neophylic’’ tendencies in taste. According to Fischler, both tendencies may be found among individuals. They dislike or suspect new and hence unfamiliar foodstuffs and dishes. Or they tend to search for novel and strange food. But even those who search for new culinary experiences may be repelled by the local culinary situation and reluctant or unable to partake of the food served in local culinary establishments. (Cohen & Avieli, 2004)

Regarding breakfast, respondents indicated to prefer to a very large percent (68.8%) the Greek breakfast with local dishes, compared to the Continental


(European) breakfast and the American breakfast. Tasting local foods and beverages helps to create memories of the tourist destination, according to the majority of respondents at a rate of 75.18 (accumulating “totally agree” and “agree“), which is also confirmed by other studies (& Telfer Wall, 1996? Handszuh, 2000).

Finally it should be noted that the local gastronomy upgrades the overall travel experience, at a rate of 29.08% (Very much) and 46.8% (much), since through the local flavors the tourist get to know the history, the tradition and the culture of the destination, enjoy new tastes and have the opportunity to taste fresh ingredients.

The fact that the female population of the research was more positive to the local gastronomy, to the local events, to contacts with the local community, local products and markets, in obtaining food recipes, but also in the search for information concerning the local gastronomy was an interesting result of the study.

7. SUGGESTIONS FOR THE GASTRONIMIC TOURISM DEVELOPMENT The possible strategies that can contribute to establishing a gastronomic

destination are in order of importance: the coverage of all local dishes from the mass media, the availability of sufficient funds for the development and promotion of tourism gastronomy, the promotion of high quality restaurants, the development of local dishes as a special attraction of the destination, the creation of an image and marketing strategy of local dishes, the production of flyers to highlight the role of local dishes, the organization of regional food festivals, food exports of local products, the organization of exhibitions, developing special food and wine routes and the organization of special gourmet events (Hall, 2003).

According to WTO (2012) as for gastronomic tourism products that exist in

their Destination, the organizations consulted underlined in the first place the importance of food events (expressed by 79% of respondents).This is followed by gastronomic routes and cooking classes and workshops, with 62% answering affirmatively, food fairs featuring local products (59%) and visits to markets and producers (53%). Having less weight among gastronomic tourism product offerings are museums (cited by only 12% of respondents), and presentations with 6% of positive answers. About 68% of the organizations consulted carry out marketing activities or promotion based on Food Tourism. The marketing and promotional tools most used by these entities are: organizing events (91%), producing brochures and advertising (82%) and dedicated websites on food tourism (78%). At a lower level are promotional tools such as tourism guides (61%), blogs (43%), and familiarization trips for journalists and tour operators (13%). And lastly, only 4% of the organizations surveyed said they used social networks for the promotion of food tourism.

According to the literature review and the primary research, the suggestions

for the development of gastronomic tourism especially in Greece are: Upgrading the gourmet services offered in the various destinations in Greece.

Upgrading the gastronomic portfolio, which requires a wide range of activities such as the networking among the various stakeholders in tourism, the connection of local food with the culture, the society and the environment, the connection of the gastronomy with other tourist activities and also the connection with other forms of tourism.

The design and implementation of a communication plan which will promote the culinary tourism and the quality of food and beverages offered in Greece.

The introduction of Greek breakfast in hotels and accommodation. Professionalism in the tourism process and a qualitative gastronomic portfolio. The implication of quality assurance programs and price controlling for the

Greek gastronomy. Establishment of farmlands and production sites such as wineries and

breweries, open for tourist excursions. Further research about tourist needs and to define the way that these can be

met.

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Decoding & Cracking the Anomaly of Tourism

Information: The Contribution of the Tourism

Solutions Generator to Destination Countries

DR GERSHON PAZ‐TAL

Based on The Doctorate Theses Research, Paris 8 (Sorbonne) Univ.2013.Department of International studies, France. The researcher: Ramat‐

Gan,Israel


Abstract In 2014, there is still a significant failure in the field of tourism information. The F.I.T - Free Individual Tourist - constitutes 40%-70% of the world's tourism market & 90%-95% residents in any country. Google and Microsoft Internet portals and various "Search Engines ",as well as other sophisticated technologies do not provide the "appropriate solution" for the F.I.T. The researcher has arrived at the conclusion that a change of perception and unification, and of the operative systems is required in order to create one integral combined system. The researcher suggests building a unified system which operates as a “Tourism Solutions Generator” (T.S.G- see Fig 1 p 20),functioning as Tourism Customer Service on a Geographical Basis, by changing the mode of thought from “Search Engine” to “Getting Solutions” as part of the D.M.O. T.S.G will lead to improvements in Tourism Economy and the establishing of new norms for touring and tourism managerial destinations. There is a lucrative market for investors and/or governments for N.T.Os as a new growth engine. (Look for short explanation in : http://youtu.be/8zuN4eQKy-c) Keywords

Anomaly (of tourism information and the use of said information) Human elements . "Tourism Logic" (thinking, habits, activities, etc. during travel and at leisure) " Quality Tourism Information" – Q.T.I = De-Luxe (information) Terminology as a short Dictionary

Accessibility (to T.S.G via Smartphone, electronic or chip developed by the researcher)

F.I.T-Free Individual Tourist, which constitutes 40% -70% of the world's tourism market (O.N.S-UK, 2010)(Note 79)

Human Factor (operating human elements/materials). Here & Now, ad hoc planning (in tourism situations). Done by the F.I.T. Myth. "An idea or story which many people believe but that does not exist or is

false: The idea that money makes you happy is a myth…" Oxford Dictionary 2003 - P 556 . Copyright - Oxford University Press 2001.

Tourism Skills & Tourism Culture. (Travel Tool Books-T.T.B-144 tourism skills of the tourists making the trip, going abroad pointed 5000 elements)

Tourism Experience Content (information). (produced partly by Q.T.I ) Tourist Life Cycle. (1-8 stages of going abroad) Tourism Branding (first 3 out of 5 strata of information regarding the destination)

T.S.G – A new system called Tourism Solutions Generator (replacing the approach of "Search Engine"). T.S.G for: the "Free Individual Tourists" – F.I.T (families, youth, businessmen, etc.), for Tourism Destinations (National, Regional, Municipality & Sites levels), for all tourism products and services (private businesses or organizations such as attractions, accommodations, art galleries, museums, restaurants, farms, wineries, sports, markets, car rentals, festivals, etc.) for technologies and telecommunication companies.(see Fig 1 p 20)

"Pump" Information- The F.I.T "pumps" Q.T.I from T.S.G at any time, in any place,

by any technological means. Introduction to the Gaps in F.I.T Tourism Information: 2012 recorded over one billion international tourist arrivals (stay-overs). In 2020, the W.T.O. expects 1.5 billion tourists (UNWTO, 2010). In addition, there will likely be between 2-3 domestic tourists, cultural tourists and vacationers, with 90%-95% being F.I.T in each country. Most tourists require information while planning trips and/or during travel, including data on sites, attractions, all types of accommodations en route, etc. In 2013, tourists continue to use primitive organizational systems worldwide, when advanced technologies already exist which are not adapted to the F.I.T.'s concerns. Despite the existence of Internet "Search Engines" and cellular technologies in the field of tourism information, it must be emphasized that said information (Vogt, 1995) still includes a significant failure to provide "appropriate solutions" for F.I.T. These sources of tourism information are partial or out of date, and may not be available in the tourist's native language, or are not available in the right location in real time. Advanced technologies cannot provide useable "Quality Tourism Information"- Q.T.I (Appendix 2) at any given moment in any given location, by any means of communication, at the right price, in real time, on a personal (Note 76,79) basis, based on "Tourism Logic" (W.T.O/UNEP, 1992) (WTO-BC, 2001) (W.T.O, 2000) "…Lack Of Personal Contact…" (Note 25) The architectural structures of advanced technologies are not integrated. (Note 2, 3) (Tazim and Jim-Hyung, 2003) (Christina and Hailim, 2008) & "Automatic Technologies Are Not Suitable For selling complex products" (Like Tourism & Leisure Products) ( Economist, 3/2004). Research Objective: The aim of this research is to find the connections between destinations & tourists' difficulties in coping with various problems. The F.I.T must be provided a "Total Solution" in every possible situation, at any time. This requires applicable methods strategically (N.T.O), operationally (D.M.O) and tactically (F.I.T) to improve both branding and tourism economy. Breaking The Myth of "Smart Technologies":


The axioms are that tourism information is a field that constitutes a positive and critical part of the F.I.T.'s mission: however, no system – hardware or software – exists in the world today (2014) with the ability to provide a comprehensive solution of "Quality Tourism Information" -Q.T.I (Note 10,11,12,13) for the F.I.T in real time. See "Terminology Dictionary". (Note ONS-UK, 2010 & Note 6) Interaction between Human Factors, Content, and Technological Methodology: Tourism as a worldwide movement is built on three foundations: the "Human Factor", Content, and Technology. The research process examines interaction between these three foundations, including the collection, analysis (Tourphonet, 1992-2006) (Note 15) and data consolidation from 25 quantitative and qualitative researches and surveys, as well as 5 empiric pilots in which more than 6000 people and more than 500 managerial decision-makers participated. The research diagnoses over 100 formations of "human materials" (Appendix 4) produced by the "Human Factor" (Note 14) in tourism situations. Over 500 types of motivations (niches) for tourism and leisure have been uncovered, presenting more than 100 different kinds of tourism products and services (Appendix 5) that may be of use to the F.I.T. The research exposes 144 subjects of "Tourism Skills" (Appendix 6) required by any tourist, and defines over 30 variables required for any kind of planning and execution of travel abroad, vacationing, trips, tours or excursions (Note 35) (Note 34A) (Note 18-33). Furthermore, the research points out over 200 indicators which testify to previous attempts in the field (Note 36, 42-45) to provide the human need for "Qualitative Tourism Information". Observations in 9 countries have been analyzed (Note 20-24, 48, 51), presenting approximately 70 subjects of the "Learning Curve" (Note 46, 47). The research consists of 700 pages covering a span of 22 years (1990-2012), and includes analysis of the links between researches in terms of interfaces, diagnoses and identifications of new phenomenon (Appendix 3), apparent and hidden obstructions, contextual analyses and discussions, and global experiments (Note 42,43,44,45). During the pilots, over 35,000 contacts/minutes were logged by customers inquiring about over 600 topics, covering over 10,000 destination sites, 4000 touring/hiking routes, and about 3000 types of events. The operating staff ("Informatours") consisted of 26 operators at peak time during the tests in back & front rooms. (Kenneth,Saeven and Roger 1995)(Note 15) (Tourphonet, 1992-2006). The Problem for the End User (F.I.T): Defining the problem requires focus on the F.I.T "tourist". The researcher finds that communication and technology companies ignore the "Human Factor" of the F.I.T. (Note 79) who desperately needs assistance.

The "potential tourist" and the "visiting tourist" are interested in relevant information before & during the trip cycle. The problem is providing/receiving the relevant "Quality Tourism Information" (Note 40) (Note 10-13, 52) and/or combinations of various types of content (Appendix 2 & 5)( Note 3,69). Access to this information is necessary (Note 5) in real-time at multiple points before (Note 68) and during the trip: while bookings and orders are being taken (often earlier), payment, advice, directions being changed, etc. This requires interaction between the "Human Factor", Content and Technology.

1. The problem of the destination

The country as a tourism destination faces a major problem: it is unable to organize and provide "Quality Tourism Information" (enhanced by the researcher) in real-time despite available portals. No branding information, practical tourism information, or experiential information is provided from one place, in one contact."…The first to reach the tourist with relevant information will win him over and ultimately win this battle..." (Wahab, 1976)

2. The problem of the Internet myth

In the eyes of the public, any situation can be resolved because "…the Internet provides everything you need…" (Look at Terminology of Myth) , ( Keller, 1998) (Woters, 2010) (Buhalis, 2009) (Busch, 2001) (SDM, 2003)(Appendix 1). This research shatters the myth of omniscient tourism internet portals & "Search Engines" regarding tourism information for the F.I.T. in real time. (Note 702+702A) The fallibility of several technologies in this field (Internet, Apps, GPS, Smartphone etc) is also explored. Existing technologies (2014) do not provide an adequate solution (Appendix 1 & Note 1, 8,52A) for the F.I.T. (Note 69,79) Over the years the Internet has been branded and identified as the ultimate tourism information provider, thus creating a myth that is hard to dispel but which must be disproven. The Internet provides solid information about hotels, flights, car rentals and major events and attractions, across millions of websites, but without "Tourism Logic". Moreover, these technologies cannot resolve existing problems due to the uniqueness of the challenges facing the tourist whose interests, motivations, expectations and behaviors cannot be factored into the overwhelming amount of information provided by the architecture of the Internet to date. (Appendix 1) (Anomaly). Nevertheless, this is not a valid reason to reject the contribution of these technologies (internet) to the world tourism industry as a whole.(WTOBC, 2001).

The Big Picture: X, Y, S, T, L, D The researcher has identified several new phenomena (Appendix 3) such as the "Anomaly of tourism information and the use of said information", as well as the


style of the "Tourism Experience". (Note 48) (Paz-Tal, 2005) (Uriely, 2005) (Note 17) "…from destination collectors to experience seekers…" (Buncle, 2006) In addition, the technological ability of the F.I.T. to receive "Quality Tourism Information" at once, via special kits (Note 40), is also a new field in creating the accessibility to Q.T.I. The research identifies "Tourism Logic" (Paz-Tal, 2005) which brought the researcher to understand that the Internet protocol alone (e.g. "Search Engine"& App & Smartphone etc) (Appendix 1) cannot provide "Quality Tourism Information" for F.I.T, thus requiring the development of new items which are presented by the T.S.G. One of them is an algorithm which developed as a model, a formula, and technology in itself. This new formula, called T.I.P - Touring Individual Planning (Paz-Tal, 2005) (Paz-Tal thus: et el, 2000) – constitutes a new approach including software, processing & some aids that were not in use anywhere in the world previously. This new model/formula was developed in order to provide fast solutions for the F.I.T. (Note 9) (ONS-UK, 2010) to allow "…closing the loop-from information to booking C.L.C - Contact Life Cycle…" (Note 5) (W.T.O: Team 2003) [326] "Tourism Human Engineering" is a mechanism which was developed (Economist, 2004) to identify and deal with the "Human Factor" on the emotional, experiential, associative and psychological levels. There are more than 100 "Human Elements" (Appendix 4) such as dilemmas, uncertainty, physical and mental fatigue, etc. This mechanism, assisted by "Pazit" software, enables the provision (Note 68) of a personal solution: S for T specific time, for L location and D distribution by all types of technologies, offering a "solution package" for the F.I.T. in real-time (thanks to the developed Call Contact Content Context Connecting Center = C6) (Note 3), in addition to a related "Quality Tourism Information" (appendix 2 & 5) provider by means of the T.I.P. Algorithm and 11 integrated combinations of tourism data (Note 2) & other means (Jamal and Jim,2003). So at the end of X seconds or Y minutes, a personal solution can be distributed to the F.I.T via all technologies, on-line, on-Call, on-LiveChat, on-SMS, on-Fax,on-View,on-Board, etc. A Change Of Strategy The researcher, having checked and analyzed the "tourist problem", approaches the field of branding (Pizam, 2009) problems in a country. Lately (2009), the W.T.O. –World Tourism Organization – has published (Note 4) its consideration of branding a touring destination, in which it analyses the stages of transforming a citizen of any country into a de facto tourist, as well as the mechanism for choosing touring destinations. These considerations are well-integrated (Geng,Chi,Christina and Hailim, 2008) (as proposed by the researcher) in the branding aspects that have been decided at any destination. The researcher has concluded that a change of perception in the joint strategy, the thinking lines and the operative strategic and tactical systems (Eshet, 2009) must be conducted (in the World Tourism Industry, Note 2) in order to create one combined integrated (Jamal and Jim, 2003) system. This is due to the fact that the concept of tourism information contains 5 strata of different information types, which, over time, create a perception that consolidates into a psychological picture in the eyes of the population as to the touring destination. It is now possible to

create access to tourism information via "Ongoing-Tailor-Made" new methodology (Paz-Tal, 2005), creating the advanced technology to distribute the content as information through all cellular possibilities (Note 78) as an integrated tool with the "Human Factor" to get "Quality Tourism Information" at the personal initiative of the F.I.T end-user (emphasizing that the technology alone cannot do so). The Latest Innovation: Technologies such as Internet sites, editors (Erenest & Yang, 2006), middlemen, Portals, crowdsourcing, "Like creators", "Balloon (Lot) creators", Tweeters, Facebook "friends" (salaried or not) and "Group Whatsapp" cannot provide QTI in real time (Note 52A,69).(Travel-Gold-Rush by Oxford Uni & Amadeus, 2010) The researcher has identified & emphasized that for the first time, it is possible to transfer all data solutions from a unified place and time, from 11 combinations of tourism information, from X resources. All 5 strata of information will be instantaneously transferred. This unification makes it possible to "close the loop" (Note 5). This must be operated 7/24/365 (Tourphonet, 1992-2006) (Note 15,52) worldwide, as "closing the loop" for the basket of tourism products (weiermair 1998 & 2001) from inquiry to booking is an iron-clad rule (Note 5) and must be exploited, as well as additional new rules of "Tourism Management" (Kotler, 2003) (Paz-Tal, 1998), only at the appropriate time for the F.I.T & his Tourism Motivation (Buttle,2006). The Practical View An interactive single-or multiple-contact personal system (Note 69,76,79) has been developed (Wallace thuse: et al, 2004) based on the T.I.P. model for (Note 9) Tourism Individual Planning. A tourist can communicate from anywhere in his/her home country or while traveling, using any type of cellular or Internet phone, smartphone, e-mail, apps, livechat, etc., receiving immediate answers (Note 67) as "Quality Tourism Information" (Appendix 2 & 5) from specially-trained multilingual, multifunctional, multicommunicational "informatours" 24 hours a day (Note 5, 46) (" …do not forget the "human touch" … "people still want to talk…"…people want "Quality Tourism Information…"…people want fast reactions…") (WTO, 2000). Travelers who do not find their way can be given immediate help, and other "human elements" (Appendix 4) can be added (e.g. emergency medical assistance [Appendix 6] or advice on visiting areas with security or technical problems). By request, information (such as maps or graphs) can be distributed immediately via any channel following an inquiry. This service is comparable to first-class & first-aid local expertise (augmented by second & third aid provided via digital, visual, textual and audial methods available anywhere and anytime). The options offered are based on suppliers of tourism services after crosschecking and are presented in an equal-opportunity random-systematic order when more than one is available – as such, any advice is impartial. Besides the findings, more than 60 conclusions were crystallized. As for the F.I.T. tourist (Note 77, 79), a "comprehensive solution" (Note 8, 9) is needed for the information problem (details are noted in the research). Indeed, solutions are


offered that the traveler/tourist wants and needs, in order to provide an answer to his "Tourism Mission" (Millington, 2006), which enables him to utilize his economic, mental and experiential abilities.(Pollock,1995a,1998b,2001c,2001d) This kind of systemic, organizational and technological solution combines in its transmission medium an "Emergency Room", a multidisciplinary and multifunctional human being (SDM, 2003 & 2010)(Note 23) (Paz-Tal, 2002)(Note 46) using all available technologies. This solution includes a multidisciplinary database organized via "Tourism Logic" (Appendix 3) which simultaneously answers all the tourist's needs. This modern solution is defined by the researcher as T.S.G – the Tourism Solutions Generator (which will replace the "Search Engine"). The Maine Conclusion - A New Tourism Approach Worldwide The changing trend of global tourism from Mass to Individual (UNWTO, 2009) (Note 6) and the growing importance of information to Individual Tourism as leverage for Tourism Economy (United Nation NY, 2005) (Wanhill, 1994) have led to the Maine conclusion to develop of T.S.G.: Paz-Tal's "Tourism Solutions Generator" as a "Tele-Communication Info-Reservation Tourist and Commercial Service" based on the T.I.P. model. (Note 9) and C6 as a unique one-stop shop & more. (Wallace,2004). The Economic Rationale The T.S.G. offers the D.M.O. (Destination Marketing/Management Organization) a source of revenue based on "Tourism Economy" (Note 7) (Caroline and Fiona, 2008) (Note 64). Field tests were conducted (Note 15, 35, 40, 46, 52) and included thousands of calls and requests for information, which provided integrated, interactive solutions to complicated customer requirements. Among the users utilizing the system were customers of major organizations such as Diners Club, Visa, Isracard, a daily newspaper, the Nature Protection Association and others. There are 5 key players in defining the market segments for T.S.G. services: 1.Telecommunication & Technology Companies, 2.Incoming & Domestic tourist & travel markets (family, youth, managers, etc.), 3. Government markets (N.T.O), 4.D.M.O, Municipalities, Regions, L.T.O, 5.Tour services and product providers (Museums, Attractions, Accommodations, etc.) (Appendix 2 & 5) (Note 76) The T.S.G.'s new approach with modern technologies will provide the tourist with an opportunity to receive "Quality Tourism Information" (Appendix 2 & 5) regarding any destination in the world. With growing global tourism, this can be a lucrative market. In the future it is intended for Tourphonet™ as a T.S.G. system to be a worldwide service, a telecommunication info-reservation tourism system and service provider based on global distribution of C6 - call/web unique centers in almost every country, some with 1-5 TSG.

T.S.G. Accessibility Via New Technology The T.S.G. system provides full access (Note 40) (Paz-Tal, 2005) (Tourphonet, 1992-2006) (ITI Ltd, 1992-2006) to all necessary information both for the tourist and the destination country. The beneficiaries of the contact are the D.M.O, tourist service providers, local P.T.T. and the hosting destination. Since the tourist has limited time at the destination, "…the easier the accessibility to relevant information, the more time will be used on better spending…" (Weiermair, 1998) Available product information increases the purchase of those products/services. With the availability of modern technology and communication, the T.S.G.'s new accessibility mode creates new norms of touring & emphasizes tourism management for local, regional & national tourism economy. Summary 1. Today (2014) the Internet's architectural structure cannot adapt itself to fully

suit context-specific individual requirements.(Note 69,79) (Kitaro, 2012) (Note 77, 702) The Internet alone cannot provide meanings (Note 702) relevant to specific individuals or findings (A + B – C) and so on. The Internet (Apps, Smartphone, portals etc…) is a great tool to distribute content = Q.T.I, but it cannot fully provide the nature of the content, the organization of the content, the “contents” of the content, the components of the content, the amount of content components, and the relevant content, on time, on site, in any personal conditions (11 points out of 50 points).

2. Today (2014), there are no "Supporting Tourism Centers" (as "Customer Service") in any country. T.S.G. (as the Maine conclusion) fulfills this need (Note 79) on a geographical basis. (T.S.G. may become part of the D.M.O. or standalone) "The T.S.G. system is a global system that can be easily tailor-made to numerous destinations and types of tourists…" (Note 66)

3. The research provides & identifies & develops new phenomena & aids like Anomaly, Tourism Logic, Pumping, Pazit software, Algorithm T.I.P & more, which become the practical to use worldwide.

4. The research proves that without T.S.G, a small country loses about $3.8 billion (at the period of the research) solely because T.S.G. is not in use.

5. This T.S.G approach is designed to meet the needs of all participants in the touring process: the F.I.T, the service providers, the telecommunication companies, the D.M.O -municipalities and the regional & national governments. Thus, each of these players would be interested in participating in the T.S.G. service, and the business solution (Note 8) it provides.

As the author has demonstrated above, there are several different economic models to choose from, and the investor (public, private or a combination of both) will need to consider which one is suited best to meet his short & long-term requirements.


T.S.G. as a practical way , can begin to make initial dollar profits after 9-24 months, after which it will gradually spread throughout the world to other countries.

Appendixes (6 out of 12 in the original research ) Appendix 1 Why is the Internet less accommodating to the F.I.T tourist needs than the TSG approach by the T.I.P. Model in real touring situations? The Internet cannot provide detailed, relevant and specific information to individual F.I.Ts in real-time. The Internet's architectural structure is sectarian, and will inevitably "drown" the tourist with unnecessary, inaccurate and impersonal information. Additionally, the Internet cannot cope with complex or open-ended questions, and cannot organize its information according to Tourism Logic or Quality Tourism Information requirements. Answers provided by the Internet are not integrated to include all possible aspects of the tourist's needs (accommodation, transportation, site information, relevant points of interest, etc.) Because the Internet is "open-source", it does not add any special anecdotes or advice for the tourist in specific locations ("Remember to take a raincoat when visiting the waterfall"). (6 points out of 50 )

Appendix 2 What is “Quality Tourism Information”- Q.T.I ? Quality Tourism Information is the total amount of information needed by the Free Individual Tourist. This includes all practical information and data, suggestions, recommendations and explanations, guidance, orientation (navigation), saving reservations, alternatives, route planning, personal knowledge, integrated information from different sectors: all provided in one centralized contact suited to the F.I.T. Q.T.I contains all existing information in the field, and can change over time during the trip, adapting to the evolving needs of the customer. (6 points out of 40) ( part of the Anomaly) Appendix 3 The following terms (and more) have to be understood as new & modern terminology in order to realize the functional and business potential in the new T.S.G. approach (included in the original research):

1."Tourism information is a product in itself". (Buhalis,2008) 2. “Quality Tourism Information” (Enhanced by the researcher) 3. Information is a "key factor" for F.I.T & for the Tourism

Economy.(Wahab,1976) 4. “Ongoing-Tailor-Made” new methodology.(Paz-Tal,2005) 5."The Anomaly of tourism information and the use of it ".(Note 68,79) 6. C6 -An unique-inform supermarket. Call, Contact, Content, Context, Conn..,

Center. (Pollock,2001)(Paz-Tal ,2013)(Note 68) 7. Seven foundational principles for the tourist and the linkage and relations of

each one (creating the right balance of them for the F.I.T.):

a. Time b. Geographical space c. Experience d. Finance e. Patience

f. Risk

g. Information

8."Reengineering tourism information systems and their use."( Buhalis,2009)(Note 19)

9."Tourism logic" containing more than 60 elements.(Paz-Tal,2013)(Note 68)

10."Total tourism information solution"

11."Here & Now" tourism situation & planning.

12.“Human factors”, "Human materials", "Tourism Human Engineering".(Note 68)

13.Changes in the tourism "Game Rules".

14.Tourism information multiplication factors.

15.Mobile usability, relevant information - the main factor in tourism.

16.Tourism economy

17.G.G.T.I.-based tourism information, showing data on "Tourism Logic"(Note 68)

18.T.I.P-Tourism Information Planning Model & Algorithm.(Note 68)

Partial: 18 points out of 47 points & more (part of the Anomaly).

Appendix 4 The human elements (conditions) affecting the tourist before, during and after touring situations which the Internet and related technologies are currently incapable of dealing with: Dilemmas in decision-making, expectations of specific destinations, disorganized attempts to gather information, orientation (navigation), skepticism, uncertainty and anxiety, budget, patience and fatigue, frustration due to overexposure to irrelevant information. 14 factors out of more than 100. (Part of the Anomaly) Appendix 5 The categories and diversity of tourism information provided by the T.S.G. in one contact: Tourist sites and attractions, restaurants, animal farms, zoos, spice farms, agricultural tours, bicycle renting, trails motorcycles, scooters, pubs, bars, clubs, music coffee shops, kiosks blooming flowers, nature trails, spas, workout centers, sport clubs, rooms to let, concerts, quires, musicals, magicians, clowns, singers,


outdoor activity centers, cultural events, festivals, happenings, street performers, B&B, motels, hotels, ranches, camping sites, renting tents, caravan rentals & parks, apartment, suites, gas stations, sailing, beaches, camping supplies, field schools, nature sites, boats, canoes, sailing kayak rentals, barges, canal trips, eco-tourism, bird-watching centers, hiking trips, museums (35 out of 528 types of family tourism products or services [part of the Anomaly]) Appendix 6 ANANAS is an all-inclusive “Travel Tool box” (T.T.B) The “T.T.B” provides the rules for do’s and do not’s within the travel / tourism culture and required skills. It deals with ALL aspects of travel such as booking, health insurance, medication on the road and onboard, international credit and debit cards, Consular services, Visas, Search and rescue, and points of interest in the tourism field (know how to traveling) The T.T.B is delivered in 6 parts, 12 touring areas, 33 topics, and over 80 tourism subject skills, altogether 144 chapters encompassing over 1500 A4 pages with more than 5000 tips. (Part of the Anomaly)

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Incl. Tours.xlsx

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"Depth interview"(2001), by Naomi Panush & Paz-Tal Gershon as the representatives of the Israel Tourism Assoc - ITA, in SDM office call center, Zurich, Swiss ,11 June 2001.[018][look also 151][016]

19. Dimitrios Bauhalis,(1996),"Information Technology and the Reengineering Of Tourism Enter,1996.[035]

20. Embacher Hance,(2001) -the Director Manager of Farmholiday Austria ,"interview" ,Zalsburg,11/6/2001.[620]

21. Embacher Hance,(2010),the Director Manager of Farmholiday Austria ,"interview" ,Berlin-ITB,9/3/2010.[618]

22. Maier Helga (2001), Manager of Tiscover Software Company for Travel Information Systems, "Depth Interview and presentation of some new software" by Naomi Panush & Gershon Paz-Tal, Representatives of the Israel Tourism Assoc, Austria,12 June 2001.[021]

23. SDM, (2003),Switzerland Destination Management Ltd, "Profile vision programs Swiss Web sites", www.sdm.com,Tourism Organization and Firms in the web,12/5/2003 [016][018,151]

24. Waiermair Klaus ,(2001),Professor for very small Tourism Businesses, University of Insburg Austria, "Depth Interview" ,by Naomi Panush& Paz-Tal Gershon representatives of the Israel Tourism Assoc. Austria,12 June 2001.[019]

25. Wallace Manolis And Athers,(2001)," Intelligent One-Stop-Shop Travel Using An Adaptive Neutral Recommendation Network and Clustering Of History", "…Lack Of Personal Contact…" , Information Technology & Tourism Vol 6 p.p.182-193,2004.[353]

Part D 26. Paris-Tourism Information Stations In 9 Sites In France "Visits & Interview with

The Manager Of the France TIC Tourism Information Centers" ,Shance-Elize Avenu Paris- the National Station, organized by Mr Rafi Matsliach Deputy Manager, Paris, 1-9/6/01.[083]

27. Paris Center -Near Place-De- La- Bastee,(2010),"Searching 34 Café With WiFi Abilities", In Paris,No one have This Ability 4/3/10.[167]

28. Rome, Tourism Information Station,(2010),"visit Pictures"by Max & Tsipi,26/5/10[554] 29. San Denis Tourism Information Station,(2010), "Visit & interview ",San Denis-

North Of Paris Municipality ,France, ,2/3/2010.[155] 30.St' Gallen ,(2010), rent of "cellular for tourism information for St'

Gallen",Swisserland,1-17/3/10. [485] 31. Sub Station, Shared With private Chocolate Store, (2010),as tourism information point ,"Visit & interview" ,Swiss,9/3/2010 [165] 33. Tourism Information Station, ," Visit", Budapest Airport & Municipality

,1/3/2010.[158]. Tourism Information Stations In 5 Sites In London City "Visits& Interviews" with The Managers Of the British TIC -Tourism Information Centers,1-9/1/00.[039a]


Part E 34.De Kastro Aaron -deputy Google Israel,(2009)," Presentation T.S.G New Concept & Document ",Tel Aviv,9/12/09.[470] 34A. Agam Ailon, (2004), manager of content Pelephon cellular Ltd," Summary of

Tourphonet Show & Demonstration & Presentation as T.S.G ",Pelephone Ltd ,Israel,30/6/2004.[614]

35. Baron Refael Raimond ,(2003)," Professional Evaluation For Tourism Information System For Individuals Traveler Called Tourphonet (As T.S.G)", In Past The Head of Research Devision Of Tourism Ministry 26/12/2003.[177]

36.Beyond Guiding,,(2004),"Tourism Information Cellular ",Google web Site,20/6/04 [544]

37.Budapest Information City Map,(2010), ",By: BTH –Budapesti Tursztikai Non Profit Kft.

Tourism Office Of Budapest.2010.[187] 38. Christina Licata Maria,(2001), "E-Tourism: Challenges Solutions Mobile

Technologies Also Coming...Change in the Way That Tourism Is Marketed and Sold"; Seminar in University Of Surrey, Feb. 2001[017]

39. Clark Calin G,(1999)," Changes In Leisure Time, Impact On Tourism ",A Publication

Of The World Tourism Organization-Business Council [WTOBC] 1999..[298].

39A.Elzas Lorian one Of Regionals In France ,(2010),"Regional Prospect By Elzas Lorain Tourism Association ",Distribute point at Shanz-Elize Avinu Paris,3/2010.[191]

40. ITI Ltd,"Tourphonet (As T.S.G),(1992-2006),4 cards In 4 Generations" ,For

"Quality Tourism Information" Pilots on the basis of TIP Algorithm, Original Card Documents, Pilots 1992-2006.[524]

41. No Name," Marketing Tourism Destination Online,Strategies For The

Information Age "(2001),,World Tourism Organization-Business Council [ WTOBC ] Indicative Cost Participate Online, Destination Management Systems.9/2001.[319]

42. "Mobile Tourist Guide "(2003),The Program Project Description. No Of Project-

IST-2001-36004, 13/12/2003.W.W.W.Motoguide.org .Time : , 1/5/2002 start, 31/12/03 – end [591]

43. "Motonow",(2004) ,www.Motonow.com.9/1/04[592] [590,591] 44. MotoGuide,(2003),"Cellular For Tourism & Leisure Content" ,A Project With

the Cooperation By The OECD,israel,Maariv,May 2003.[045] 45. "Motoguide"(2003).org. com ,The developers :Motorola Israel [IL],31/12/03] [337]Participated:

Motorola,Σφάλμα! Η αναφορά της υπερ-σύνδεσης δεν είναι έγκυρη. ]D [A Tourism Cellular Mobilephone led by Motorola Int

Financed by The Europien Union.31/12/03][337] 46. Paz-Tal Gershon,(2002)," Talking Language " & " Icon Language ",Report to

ITI,As A part of Tip Algorithm- How To Recognize The Feeling & Emotional Situation & Wants Of Traveler Requesting Solvings His Information Problems While Traveling, ( Code 5087,5081,8322),3/2002.[094](part of Anomaly)

47. Paz-Tal Gershon,(2006),"The Differentiation Between The Internet Technology and The Algorithm TIP Technology", To Help Travelers ,Report, Code 6609,9/2006.[493]

48. Price Kenneth(2006)," Professional Opinion About The Importance of The Innovation Technology Merchandising" In The Face of Practices ,As Algorithm T.I.P, to create the Business & Public Advantage, Related To Tourism Information System, Also Present In Regional Tel Aviv Court No 490/96,10/2002,15/10/06.[501]

49. Paris Municipality City Prospect ,(2010),"New Concept ",for Tourists, Paris, 2010.[188]

50. "Tripatini",(2010),www.tripatini.com, Canada forum -Tourism Branding.12- 14/1/2010.[466] 51.Tourism information station(2010), in the center of Paris near the Louvre

National Museum ,"visit& interview",Paris,,2/3/10.[616] 52.Tourphonet (As TSG),(1997), Prospect's ",No Name, For Isracard Preliminary

Pilot Cooperate Whith Arkia Airline, Herth Car Rental, Hayatt Hotels International etc, Published 1997/8.[320][ belong also to 305] Gershon Paz-Tal, Commercial Preliminary Pilot No 03- for Tourphonet Service for Isracard -Preferred Credit Card Company in Israel,1997.[320]

52A. Travel-Gold-Rush-2020-Report,(2010), (Oxford & Amadeus) "Pioneering Growth and Probability Trends in the Travel Sector"- Conference, Developed By Oxford Economics [University] in Partnership with Amadeus Technology Group, in UK,10/2010.[522A].[522]

53. U.K, "Tourist Information phone ,(1991), 22 Lines, Prospect Of London And Map" By London Tourist Board And Convention Bureau of London,1991. [186]

54. UNWTO,(2009), "Tourism Highlights",2009 Edition. UNWTO.[522] 55."United Nations Conference On Trade And Development" ,Information Economy

Report 2005 , 200 pages, New York, 2005 .[079][079A] 56. WTO,(2001), No Name," Tourism Markets Trends-2001" , Edition WTO. Madrid 2001.[293] 57. WTO,(2001)," One Assessment, Nine Major Challenges" Sept 2001

Report Of The Secretary General WTO Osaka, Japan, 24-25 September 2001[516]

58. WTO-Business Council,(2001), "The Future Of D.M.O's As Intermediaries", Figure No 2.1.1,In E- Business For Tourism, WTO.9/2001.[333]

59. WTO,(2001)," Nine Major Challenges ",p5 ,General Assembly Report Of Secretary General. Sept 2001.[052]

60. WTO ,(2003),"Team 2003,Customer Content Across The Communication Life Cycle",


Figure 21, In WTO-E-Business For Tourism 2000,2003.[326] 61. WTO,(1998)," Tourism 2020 Vision ", A New Forcaste From WTO,6/1998.[514]

62. WTO,(2001),"E-Business For Tourism" Page 281, Practical Guidelines for Tourism Destination And Businesses,9/2001.[515]

63. WTO,(2001), Provision Edition," Tourism Market Trends ",world overview & tourism topics,p55,2001.[051]

64. Caroline Bremner and Fiona Jaffery,(2008),"Global Trends Report 2008", World Travel Market 10 – 13 Nov 2008.www.WTM london.com.[297]

65. Shmuel Ellis.(2013), Professor, Head of The Faculty of Management , [email protected],Tel Aviv University, Professional Report Evaluation- on the research -"Tourism information as a "lever” for branding and marketing of the State" to the International Studies, University of Paris 8, Sorbonne,23.1.2013, France.

66. Arie Reichel.(2013), Professor ,Dean, Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel, [email protected], Professional Report Evaluation- on the research -"Tourism information as a "lever” for branding and marketing of the State" , International Studies, University of Paris 8, Sorbonne, 11.2.2013,France.

67.Pilot No 01 :"…[the price is about 1/2 $ ] …3…the consumer wants: 20.6% events and festivals… 6.6% museums, 26.2 % accommodations…, 12.5% travel routes,…8.8% opening & closing time…,17% leisure activities. Commercial Preliminary pilot [303]….Pilot No 02: …3… what the people ask for :10.6%-accommodations, 88.3% attractions, 3.4% events, 10.8% travel routes, 62.8% others…4…most of the people have no idea what they really want to see…to go…to do…[304] Poilot No 03: …3… what the people ask for :10.6% accommodations, 88.3% attractions, 3.4% events, 10.8% travel routes, 62.8% others…4…lots of people have no idea what they really want to see…to go…[110,305]. Paz-Tal Gershon, Commercial Preliminary Pilots Report for Tour-Phonet as T.S.G Service joint Isracard- Preferred Credit Card Company in Israel,1997-2006 [305].

68.The Issue- 1."…only 15% from the surfing's lowd and print A4 pages when

searching tourism information from the portals…" 2…"…people surfing in 14 portals in everage …" 3 "…about 70% build an basic plan for touring for trip or vacation…" 4…"…in everage surfing spend 7 weeks for searching tourism information…in everage of 25 sites befor making decision…",5. "…Pump information…"[105,182] in the Paz-Tal.G,(2013),Tourism Information As A Liver for Branding And Marketing Of A State As A Destination,Doctorate Theses Research,Paris 8 univer (Sorbonne)France.2013.

69."…the Internet as a medium…the Lake of personal contact…the exisiting…(by

the Internet) systems are not adequate to provide for efficient personalization of interaction in the area of travel services, as they cannot support the user (F.I.T) in all the phases of travel planning…(and his activities)… " (Manolis Wallace, et al, 2004),Information Technology & Tourism,Vol.6 pp.181-193, Copyright,2004 Cognizant Coomm.Corp.WWW.Cognizantcommunication.com

xx…. 76.The Issue-1.The political situation in the world is not good, but this point must

not become a reason to do nothing in the tourism markets, the opposite must be done…p131…2. Currents situation form the agent's points of sale is very bad…3.because of the security image's problem ,they need to allow "human touch"& personal service during the stage of trip planning "…someone [with knowledge] that can talk with customer…" p133….3." ...the official representatives of tourism information in the world are very low, very trivial…very bad…"4."…. must not imitate the world….not have tourism's main activity be marketed by the internet…!" P141…5 "...this point is emphasized because of Israel's situation which needs a lot of personal & human communicating…"6.The state must reach the niche market…by tourism motivation approach, each market with separate activities…7.Not to act in the regular holiday market…not in the sun market…not in the beach market…p 143…etc….8.the presentation of these points are in www.tourism.gov.il/tourism... Erenset & Yang,(2006), "Research Report – The Potencial Tourism Markets of Israel", pp 131,133,143,141,Published by Tourism Ministry ,Israel ,Nov 2006. [76]

77. The Point-1…citation of Mr. Udi Manbar- deputy of Google worldwide engineering: who stands behind 500 changes in the search engines in Google…2…the difficulty is that in Google we have 1/3 total new questioner of all the questionnaires….3…we need to provide answers to them…4…you have a real difficulty to understand how much it is…how difficult it is…"…. Shmoshkovits Etay,"The Israeli who search for you in Google",Yediot Achronot, Newspaper, Israel 19/10/10.[077]

78.The Issue-1..the cellular will change the role of the tourist's life…2…just for a day in New York you can take a route to New York City for touring for about 4 Sterling…3…and a lot more of tourism commercial& practical usages… Millington Kevin," Mobile Phones: you won't leave home without them", Tourism Trendspotter, in Tourism the Magazine of the Tourism Society, Quarter 1, Issue 126 ,UK,2006. [078]

79. The Point-1…give the answers - what really is the main factor to motivate the people to travel to a certain destination…2….the problems & practices to operate a call center combined to the internet…p170…3…the need to have the call center be united over the day by competitions during the day in the city, region or country…p170…4…the traveler wants all the tourist elements in the limited geographical area to be under one roof, to be included in the "one stop shop", and to have the ability to give answers in one call…5…the traveler is interested in high quality tourism information…p174…6…their need to act under the tourist behavior orientation [Tourism logic]…for individuals [F.I.T]…p174….7…their need to operate with human friendship to the consumer [traveler]…that which brings to the right decision of the tourist himself…[visit the destination] p144-145…. United Nations Conference On Trade And Development ,"Information Economy Report 2005" , 200 pages, New York, 2005 .[079] [079 A]:last examples - a: "The rise in the number of fully independent travelers (F.I.T) has certainly created new tourism trends in Europe, as in other parts of the world. Around 80 per cent of British travelers to New Zealand are (F.I.T) Royal Intel - Tourism Intelligence


Consultants … Compiled by Research Division.(2012), for Sabah Tourism Board- MALAYSIA as per 21st Feb 2012….Knowing this group’s choice of destination and type of accommodation are therefore among the most important concerns of travel-related businesses. As one of the top establishment types catering to free independent travelers, youth hostels need to understand the effects of the increase of F.I.Ts on their businesses….Number of visits to UK: by region of residence and purpose of visit 2006 to 2010 The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority ISSN 1360-5895 Travel Trends 2010[079B] …In 2010 Over 300,000 interviews conducted representing about 0.2 per cent of travelers. Feasibility study on digital pen technology as a mode of data collection.[079B]calculated by Dr.R.R.Bar-On.

… xx … 702+702A. Eyal Ben-Tsur, "Continue to Search…", Citation of Dr. Udi Menbar-

Deputy Google Corporation Worldwide, Yediot Achronot,Israel,9/9/11.[702]+[702A]- Citation of Mr Amit Singhal deputy of Google President for "Search Engines":- "We want to give the people to invest less time in searching"…we want to give "semantic searching" which will give more & relevant information than today…by Sagy Kohen , Yediot Hachronot, Israel Newspaper, ,21/5/2012.[702A].

Tourism Solutions Generator – TSG Developed by Dr. Gershon Paz-Tal Belong to V 5 -31518/13

10

Fig. 1

App


Factors Affecting to Revisit of Thais’ Tourists

with Logistic Regression: A Case Study of Hua‐

Hin in Prachuap Khirikhan Province, Thailand

PARNCHIT WATTANASARUCH

Business Department, Faculty Management Science, Silpakorn University Petchburi IT Campus, Thailand

ABSTRACT

Tourism has been becoming the major sources of industries and incomes

because of the associated links of the World’s economy. The revisiting of Tourists is regarded as the key factors to the successful Tourism Industry. Thus the significant of the tourism research in relation to marketing field is one of the strategies to enlarge the numbers of tourists in Hua-Hin, Prachub khirikhan Province in Thailand where the natural tourist destinations have been well-known for Thai and foreign tourists, particularly beautiful beaches and other attractions nearby. The research aims to study factors of the revisiting of Thai Tourists. The study selected the simple random sampling method with 385 tourists by questionnaires. The analysis of the data used logistic regression to identify the significant factors of the revisiting. The study indicated that the lengths of stay and service quality by 75.3% of accurately statistic logistic results were the significant factors towards the marketing strategic plans for stimulating Thai Tourists to revisit Hua-Hin and expand the numbers of visitors. Keywords: Tourism industry, Revisit, Logistic regression INTRODUCTION

Tourism is one of the largest industries because it relates to the world economy as the major sources of incomes for communities and countries. In the past, the goal of marketing is to create as many new customers as possible but the finding new customers will be insufficient at the present. The enterprises should also focus on loyalty marketing or retention marketing (Shoemaker & Lewis, 1999). Many of tourism marketing researches have concentrated on repeat visitation as an antecedent of destination loyalty or the subjects of factors affecting repeated visitations and destination loyalty which is vital for tourism businesses from the economic perspective (Ahmad Puad Mat Som et al., 2012). For example, Hui, T.K. et al.(2007) assessed the satisfaction, recommendation and revisiting Singapore of different tourist groups Europe, Asia, Oceania and North America who departed from Singapore Changi International Airport. In addition, Haque & Khan (2013) explored factors influencing of tourist loyalty in case study on tourist destinations in Malaysia for making strategic marketing plans to encourage tourists to visit in Malaysia. And Suriya (2005) studied factors affecting revisit to Lampang province, Thailand as well. With many destinations relying on repeat business as a consequence revisiting intention has become an important research topic (Assaker et al., 2010). Particularly, adopting the repeated visitations was considered in the marketing competitions of attractions (Ahmad et al., 2012) because this increases the numbers of tourist visitors, retention and provoke into tourists but revisiting be measured in a temporal approach for more meaningful findings. (Mohammad &Ahmad, 2011) Hua-Hin district in Prachuap Khirikhan province has been becoming one of the most popular tourist destinations in Thailand. The varieties of attractions including natural resources interest local and international tourists to visit Hua-Hin and raise


the numbers of visitors every year for instance the total of tourists raised up 1,931,581 in 2011 and up to 2,603,308 in 2012. The trend is likely to increase every year (Tourism Authority of Thailand, 2012). These entice the business owners to invest and build more the attractions nearby Hua-Hin. Consequently, the varieties of places enable the tourists more choices to visit without the limitations of only visiting beaches. Therefore, based on a literature review above attract the researcher to identify the key factors that affect repeated Thais’ visitor Hua-Hin, Phachuap Khirikhan and analyze the data with the logistic regression. The paper is structured by the briefly review of the factors employed with repeated visitation and the research methodology used in this study. Subsequently, it followed by the results of the data analysis through descriptive statistics and a logistic regression indicating the significant predictors and the conclusion the study results. Factors affecting to revisit of tourists

The five associated factors affecting to revisit of the tourists in this research including lengths of stay, destination image, service quality, novelty seeking and distance to destination. Lengths of stay is the categorical variable about travel characteristics which are many researcher using in the questionnaires. Ahmad et al. (2012) and Nakornthab & Chancharat (2013) investigated determinants which influence to the lengths of stay’s visit in Chiangkhan, Thailand. Destination image is built to entice the tourists and expand the successful opportunity of the business (Graham, 2004) because the destination image influences to the decision making of the tourists (Coshall, 2000; O’Leary and Deegan, 2005 cited in Haque & Khan, 2013) and were the most important destination attributes and travel motives for repeat visitors to Sabah (Ahmad Puad Mat Som et al., 2012). Moreover, (Guy et al., 2010) showed a positive image of the destination enhances future intentions to return by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) methodology. Service quality is used to evaluate the expectation and the actual services of the customers (Parasuraman et al. 1985 cited in Haque &Khan, 2013). The gentle and compassionated service business can be brought the numbers of customers and incomes. If any attraction can reach the customers’ expectations, the increase the numbers of tourists can be possible (Kamndampully and Duddy, 2001 cited in Haque & Khan, 2013). And the results from Ivyanno & Nila (2012) revealed that service quality has a positive influence on future behavioural intentions. In tourism, the one of major antecedents of revisit intention is novelty seeking (Jang & Feng, 2007 cited in Ahmad et al., 2012). Novelty seeking and distance to destination become the powerful factors that are found to be affected to revisit of the tourists (Haque & Khan, 2013 and Jang & Feng, 2007). Distance from destination is suggested to be a useful antecedent to support the theoretical model especially novelty seeking seems to be more beneficial on revisit intension. (Badarneh & Ahmad, 2011) In tourism, novelty seeking is also investigated as an enhancer for tourist’s satisfaction (Crotts, 1993 cited in Ahmad et al., 2012).

According to the study, the researcher allocated the Independent variables and Dependent variable which followed by the theory of the research as collected data and data analysis by using logistic regression.

Table 1 Variable and Characteristics

Variables Characteristics Lengths of stay 0 = 1 day , 1 = more than 1 day

Destination image

1 = strongly disagree , 2 = disagree , 3 = Neither agree nor disagree , 4 = agree , 5 = strongly agree

Novelty Seeking


Service quality


Independent variables

Distance to destination


Dependent variable Repeated visitation0 = non repeated visitation, 1 = Repeated visitation

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Collecting data This study collected the data by questionnaires from 385 Thai tourists who visited Hua-Hin, Phachuap Khirikhan Province, Thailand with the simple random sampling method. The attribution items were assessed, using a 5-point rating scale from 5= strongly agree to 1= strongly disagree. The reliability was at 72.24% which was divided into two parts: general information of the respondents and the information about revisiting. Then the data was analyzed by using logistic regression technique from the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Logistic regression

The analysis and forecast of the results of the variables were separated into two parts (dichotomous outcome; failure and success). The difference between logistic regression and linear regression is that the outcome variable in logistic regression is dichotomous (Hosmer & Lemeshow, 2000). The logistic regression is an effective technique that is used to model the probability of success and adapt with different fields of studies such as tourism, social science and medical science. This technique uses to seek the relationship between dependent variable which involves with two sets of data (Y = 1 means events of the interest, Y= 0 means


ordinary events) with X (independent variables) can be qualitative or categorical variables to predict the opportunity of the events of the interest (Y=1) From ln[P/1-P] = B0+B1X1+...+BPXP [P/1-P] = e B0+B1X1+...+BPXP by P = [ e B0+B1X1+...+BPXP / 1+ e B0+B1X1+...+BPXP] and Y is binary and represents the event of interest coded as 0/1 for failure/success;

P is the proportion of successes; 1-P is the proportion of failure; [P/1-P] is called the Odds Ratio which is used to compare the relative odds of the occurrence of the outcome of interest (e.g. repeated visitation or non repeated visitation) if OR=1 Exposure does not affect odds of outcome, OR>1 Exposure associates with higher odds of outcome and OR<1 Exposure associates with lower odds of outcome; Xs’s are the independent variables; B0 and Bi are the Y-intercept and slope; i=1, 2... P

RESEARCH Findings

General information and visiting details of respondents

Table 2 Profiles of respondents

Variables Descriptions Percentage

Gender Male 38.70

Female 61.30

Age Below 25 21.29

25-35 32.21

Over 35 46.50

Experience of visiting Hua-Hin Never visit 42.34

Ever visited 57.66

Lengths of stay 1 day 46.23

More than 1 day 53.77

Revisit intention Yes 52.73

Recommend to other people 47.01

No 0.26

Table 2 indicated that the majority of respondents were female (61.30%), over 35 years of age (46.50%), Ever visited to Hua-Hin (57.66%), Lengths of stay more than 1 day (53.77%), and Revisit intention (52.73%) Logistic regression

Table 3 Logistic regression of revisiting of Thais’ tourist in Hua-Hin, Thailand

with the Enter selection method

Variables Coefficient Standard error Wald test Significance Odd ratio

Lengths of stay 2.115 0.241 77.117 0.000* 8.293

Destination image -0.207 0.194 1.14 0.286 0.813

Novelty seeking -0.294 0.216 1.849 0.174 0.745

Service quality 0.467 0.177 6.946 0.008* 1.595

Distance to destination -0.025 0.173 0.021 0.884 0.975

Constant -2.534 1.031 6.04 0.014* 0.079

*Significant level at 0.05 The results of the logistic regression analysis from Table 3 show Lengths

of stay and Service quality were statistically significant (significance < 0.05). The specific logistic regression model fitted to the data was

ln[Revisit/Non-revisit] = -2.534+2.115Lengths of stay+0.467Service

quality This implies that revisiting of Thai tourists in Hua-Hin, Thailand was related

to the two independent variables, Lengths of stay and Service quality. The exponential values of the coefficients are termed “odds ratios”.

Therefore, the odds ratio for Lengths of stay was 8.293 indicating that the repeated visitation of Thais’ tourist in Hua-Hin are increased by a factor of 8.293 if the visitor stays more than 1 days compared to 1 day adjusting for the effects of the other independent variable in the model.

The predictor (Service quality) recorded an odds ratio of 1.595. Thus, the odds of the repeated visitation compared with the non repeated visitation increased by a factor of 1.595 for a unit increasing in Quality of service adjusting for the effects of the other independent variable in the model.

If the coefficient of variable was considered, the factors affected the repeating visitation of Thais’ tourist consisted of Lengths of stay and Service quality (positive coefficient and odds ratio > 1). Destination image, Novelty seeking and


Distance to destination were predictors which involved with non repeating visitation (negative coefficient and odds ratio < 1).

Table 4 Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness of fit statistic with Enter selection method

*Significant level at 0.05

Table 4 displays Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness of fit statistics and Significance equalled 13.200 and 0.105 (Significance > 0.05), respectively. Therefore, the model was exactly correct and fitted with the data.

Table 5 Classification Table with the Enter selection method

Predicted

Visitation Observed

Non repeated visitation

Repeated visitation

Percentage Correct

Non repeated visitation 118 45 72.20

Repeated visitation 55 167 75.30 Visitation

Overall Percentage 74.00

Table 5 reveals the percentage correct of predicting observed from the values with logistic model which corrected by 72.20% and 75.30% with classification cut point 0.5 in group of non repeated visitation and repeated visitation Thais’ tourist, respectively. It correctly classified 74.00% of the cases indicating a good fit.

Chi-square df Significance

13.200 8 0.105*

Table 6 Logistic regression of revisiting of Thais’ tourist in Hua-Hin, Thailand

with Backward (Wald) selection method

Variables Coefficient Standard error Wald test Significance Odd ratio

Lengths of stay 2.126 0.240 78.166 0.000* 8.379

Novelty seeking -0.412 0.188 4.794 0.029* 0.663

Service quality 0.473 0.172 7.532 0.006* 1.605

Constant -3.122 0.780 16.024 0.000* 0.044

*Significant level at 0.05 The results of the logistic regression analysis from Table 6 show the

Lengths of stay, Novelty seeking and Service quality were statistically significant (significance < 0.05). The specific logistic regression model fitted to the data was

ln[Revisit/Non-revisit] = -3.122+2.126Lengths of stay-0.412Novelty

seeking +0.473Service quality

This implies that revisiting of Thai tourists in Hua-Hin, Thailand was related

to the three independent variables, Lengths of stay Novelty seeking and Service quality.

The exponential values of the coefficients or odds ratio for Lengths of stay was 8.379 (more than 1) indicating that the revisiting of Thais’ tourists in Hua-Hin would be increased by a factor of 8.293 if the visitor stayed more than 1 day compared to 1 day adjusting for the effects of the other independent variable in the model.

The odds ratio for Novelty seeking was 0.663 (less than 1) indicating that the revisiting of Thais’ tourists in Hua-Hin were increased by a factor of 0.663 for a unit increase in Novelty seeking adjusting for the effects of the other independent variable in the model. In other words, Novelty seeking was influential factor on non repeated visitation over repeated visitation of Thais’ tourists.

The predictor (Service quality) recorded an odds ratio of 1.595 (more than 1). Thus, the odds of revisiting compared to non-revisiting increased by a factor of 1.595 for a unit increase in Quality of service adjusting for the effects of the other independent variables in the model.


Table 7 Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness of fit statistic with Backward

(Wald) selection method

*Significant level at 0.05

Table 7 displays Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness of fit statistics and Significance equalled to 14.217 and 0.076 (Significance > 0.05), respectively. Therefore, the model was exactly correct and fitted with the data.

Table 8 Classification Table with Backward (Wald) selection method

Predicted

Visitation Observed

Non repeated visitation

Repeated visitation

Percentage Correct

Non repeated visitation 118 45 72.40

Repeated visitation 54 168 75.70 Visitation

Overall Percentage 74.30

Table 8 reveals percentage correct of predicting observed values with logistic model which corrected by 72.40% and 75.70% with classification cut point 0.5 in groups of non-revisiting and revisiting Thais’ tourists, respectively. It correctly classified 74.30% of the cases indicating a good fit.

5 conclusion

A binary logistic regression analysis was performed to predict revisiting of Thai tourists in

Hua-Hin Phachuap Khirikhan Province, Thailand from collected predictors such as the lengths of

Chi-square df Significance

14.217 8 0.076*

stay, destination image, novelty seeking, service quality and distance to destination. The specific

target Thai tourists’ behavior of interest was repeated visitation. Two predictor variables included in the model by Enter selection method

were: a) lengths of stay and b) service quality. For example, the odds of repeated visitation was increased by the factor of 8.293 if Thai tourists stay more than 1 day compared to 1 day and the odds of revisiting compared to non-revisiting would be increased by the factor of 1.595 for a unit increase in Quality of service, controlling for other variables in the model. The logistic model correctly classified 74.00% of the cases.

Three predictor variables included in the model by Backward (Wald) selection method were: a) lengths of stay, b) novelty seeking and c) service quality. For example, the odds of repeated visitation were increased by the factor of 8.379 if Thai tourists stay more than 1 day compared to 1 day, the odds of revisiting compared to non-revisiting would be increased by a factor of 0.663 and 1.605 for a unit increase in novelty seeking (In other words, Novelty seeking was influential factor on non repeated visitation over repeated visitation of Thais’ tourists) and quality of service controlling for other variables in the model. The logistic model correctly classified 74.30% of the cases.

As a result, the essential factors affected to repeated visitation of Thai tourists in Hua-Hin, Phachuap Khirikhan Province, Thailand by logistic regression involved with lengths of stay, novelty seeking and service quality. The key finding was that the selected variables are important correlates of repeated visitation of Thais’ tourists in Hua-Hin Phachuap Khirikhan Province, Thailand. Notwithstanding, all factors were the strategic marketing plans to stimulate the numbers of the tourists and revisiting numerous times which could increase the loyalty of the destination by revealing empirical results that repeated the intention of Thais’ tourists to revisit as well as recommending willingly Hua-Hin to the other people. As a result, to preserve loyal customers that is a crucial contributor to the profitability of business as Hsu et al. (2008) discussed. In addition, repeat visitor should be measured in short term for greater meaningful findings as Badarneh & Mat Som (2011) discussed.

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30 2014.

Agritourism Marketing Strategy and Typology

Investigation

DR. P. DIONYSOPOULOU

Hellenic Open University Athens

DR. V. KATSONI

Department of Tourist Enterprises, Technological Educational Institute of Athens

A. ARGYROPOULOU

Department of Informatics, Technological Educational Institute of Athens


ABSTRACT

During last decades, agritourism started to grow significantly in Mediterranean area

mostly due to its favourable climate. Within literature, there are many international

studies that discuss the concept of agritourism in various ways. Wide-ranging

definitions and labels concerning agritourism still create confusion as there is not a

transparent and basic understanding of the characteristics that define it.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview on behaviour patterns of

agritourists by combining these patterns with the activity-based taxonomy of all

definitions of agritourism into a structured framework. The study offers a

comprehensive framework that can be used as a basis for more informed debate

and discussion, as well as for further empirical research in future.

Key Words: Agritourism; Typology Information Search Behaviour; Tourism

Marketing

1 INTRODUCTION

Agritourism has been recognized world-wide since the early twentieth

century (Busby & Rendle, 2000; McKenzie & Wysocki, 2002; Wicks & Merrett, 2003). The development of agritourism was specifically fostered when countries established a set of policies consisting of specific guidelines, obligations, and incentives in order to encourage farm diversification through tourism and hospitality services. (Che, Veeck, & Veeck, 2005; Hegarty & Przezborska, 2005; Kizos & Iosifides, 2007; Sonnino, 2004). One example is the LEADER program that offers grants for the promotion of rural development to farmers of the member-states of European Union (E.U.) (Caballe,1999; Cawley & Gillmor, 2008; European Court of Auditors, 2010, p.100). The attempt to understand any phenomenon requires mostly a basic conceptual understanding of the fundamental characteristics that defines it. A review of existing literature shows that there isn't any specific definition for agritourism. One can discover a wide variety of labels and definitions regarding agritourism, such as agrotourism, farm tourism, farm-based tourism, and rural tourism, (Barbieri & Mshenga, 2008; Roberts & Hall, 2001; Wall, 2000), (Iakovidou, 1997; McGehee & Kim, 2004; Sharpley & Sharpley, 1997). This results in a complex structure that combines the agriculture and tourism principles, especially when there is no distinct elucidation regarding the actual meaning of them.

While the tourism literature evidences that several factors influence travelers’ behavior to consume tourism products (Lepp and Gibson, 2008; Hsu,Tsai, and Wu, 2009), to date, investigation into the determinants of agritourism consumption remains inadequate in the literature; for example, the relative importance of the various information sources (ICT sources included) used by travellers is not yet systematically analyzed. Given the increasing importance of this particular market segment for destinations, additional research is needed to understand the behavior of agritourists in an attempt to bring further theoretical and practical contributions to this field of study (Ramkissoon, Uysal and Brown, 2011). 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Meanings are the representations of a given activity developed by every

person according to their background and experiences (Coulson, 2001, p. 320; Sharpley & Stone, 2010, p. 304). Tourism meanings are usually the result of any natural or social contact that takes place during a given experience (Coulson, 2001, p. 320; Greer, Donnelly, & Rickly, 2008) and can vary according to specific contextual factors including time and place (Greer et al., 2008). According to aforementioned, stakeholders can shape the meanings for agritourism so it is vital to develop successful definitions of tourism-related activities both from the supply and demand sides. (Gilbert, 2003) Apart from that, up to date research has assisted us to understand which bases can be used by tourism destinations to effectively segment tourism markets and these efforts have largely centred upon building tourist profiles for a destination using visitor data (Frochot, 2005).

Trying to analyze the existing theoretical framework for identifying the meanings of agritourism, the sections following deconstruct several definitions of agritourism and present a discussion of the efforts put forth by Phillip et al. (2010) to construct a broad definition of agritourism.

2.1. Deconstructing agritourism definitions

Definitions of agritourism are wide-ranging in the literature. The

discrepancies found among the various agritourism definitions relate to three issues: (1) the type of setting (e.g., farm, any agricultural setting); (2) the authenticity of the agricultural facility or the experience; and (3) the types of activities involved (e.g., lodging, education). A fourth ontological issue was proposed to be added, related to the need of “travel”, given the use of the word “tourism” (agritourism) in its label (Arroyo, Barbieri, & Rich, 2012).

The type of setting where the activity occurs forms a big difference of agritourism definitions. The majority of studies claim that agritourism must be carried out on a farm (Carpio et al., 2008; Ilbery, Bowler, Clark, Crockett, & Shaw, 1998; McKenzie & Wysocki, 2002). But, there are few studies discussing different type of agricultural settings, such as farms, ranches (e.g., Che et al., 2005; Tew & Barbieri, 2012) or the inclusion of some types of off-farm facilities, such as farmers’ markets, where various kinds of farm products are taken away from the agricultural production setting to be sold (Wicks & Merrett, 2003; Wilson, Thilmany, & Sullins, 2006). Furthermore, there are different meanings used to define agricultural


establishments, especially those related to "farm". European Union defines a farm as an agricultural holding, meaning “economic unit under a single management engaged in agricultural production activities” and which can also engage in non-agricultural activities (OECD, 2001). Finally, thanks to academic developments over last decades there is a clear separation between terms "agritourism" and "rural tourism" (Colton & Bissix, 2005; Kizos & Iosifides, 2007; McGehee & Kim, 2004).

A second commonly found disagreement surrounds the authenticity paradigm related to the agricultural facility and to the experience offered (Arroyo, Barbieri, & Rich, 2012). McGehee (2007) based her agritourism development framework in the U.S. on Weaver and Fennell (1997)’s definition which explicitly excludes activities and experiences that are developed in non-working farms because they deem necessary the commercial aspect involved in this activity. Furthermore, various North American (Lobo et al.,1999; McGehee & Kim, 2004; Nickerson et al., 2001; Tew & Barbieri, 2012) and European (Hegarty & Przezborska, 2005; Kizos & Iosifides, 2007; Sonnino, 2004) studies claim that having a “working” agricultural setting is linked to recognizing this activity as one form of farm entrepreneurial diversification (Barbieri, Mahoney, & Butler, 2008). Phillip et al. (2010) expanded the authenticity debate in the context of tourist experiences by adopting MacCannell’s (1973) “front” and “back” regions of authenticity theory. The particular study refers to the difference between providing the visitors an indirect experience of agricultural activities (e.g., through demonstrations, models) from a direct engagement in an agricultural process (e.g., harvesting).

A third definitional disagreement relates to the activities that agritourism comprises which is not surprising given the extent of inconsistencies related to its meaning. Such inconsistencies may be geo-political as they seem to be associated to government policies (Arroyo, Barbieri, & Rich, 2012).

Finally, Arroyo et al. (2012) suggested the addition of an ontological discussion surrounding the definition of agritourism to the preceding debate in relation to the need of "travel", especially because the term "tourism" is embedded in the label most commonly used in the literature to depict this activity (agritourism). None of the agritourism definitions reviewed refers to the need of travel however, some of them may imply some sort of travel when mainly referring to farm-stays or entailing any type of accommodations.

2.2. A typology-based definition of agritourism

The aforementioned discrepancies motivated Phillip et al. (2010) to propose

a definition of agritourism through the development of an activity-based taxonomy. Figure 1 illustrates the proposed typology for defining agritourism.

Figure 1 A typology for defining agritourism (Phillip et al., 2010) The non Non-Working Farm agritourism (NWF) typology refers to

activities where the non-working farm only serves for scenery purposes (e.g., bird-watching on an old mill). Although the majority of the literature excludes from definition of agritourism the tourism not based on a working farm, there are cases that tourists participate in agritourism though other different ways. Examples of NWF agritourism includes farm heritage attractions, tourism activities based on converted farms (e.g. horse riding) or agricultural practices that form part of the tourist product.

The Working Farm, Passive Contact agritourism (WFPC) typology refers to activities that allows farmers to continue their agricultural activities without having interferences by the visitors(e.g., attending a wedding in a vineyard).

The Working Farm, Indirect Contact agritourism (WFIC) typology refers to activities that are more directly related to farm procedures, although the nature of the visitor's contact focuses more on the agricultural products rather than the practice of farming itself (e.g., enjoying fresh produce or meals on site). A number of authors focus mostly on hospitality and accommodation components. Examples of WFIC agritourism is the consumption of agricultural products served in accommodation or café's or through sale to tourists at farm shops.

The Working Farm, Direct Contact, Staged agritourism (WFDCS) typology refers to activities through which visitors experience agricultural functions but through staged scenarios and predetermined tours (e.g. touring an operating cider mill). Other examples of WFDCS agritourism include farming demonstrations (e.g. milking cows) and direct physical contact with farm animals (e.g. feeding or petting animals).

Last but not least, the Working Farm, Direct Contact, Authentic agritourism (WFDCA) typology refers to activities where tourists fully participate in farm tasks. Visitors work and contribute to the farm economy in return for


accommodation and food. There are limited opportunities one to experience WFDCA agritourism so there are not many examples discussed in the literature.

3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND CONCLUSIONS

All the previously mentioned approaches demonstrate the complexity of the agritourism phenomenon, illustrate a range of approaches in its typology, and emphasize a concern with determinants, information sources, decision making, and segmentation. The results of this study have important implications from managerial perspectives at the tourism destinations. The present study can help managers carry out this task in a more informed and strategic manner by examining agritourist consumption and consider the effects that information has for the agritourists at destinations. This information increases the economic impacts from travel and tourism in the destinations, adopting the necessary measures to reinforce the forms of information analyzed in this study in order to attract the suitable target market. This article supports the view that developing alliances with well-positioned, knowledgeable distribution channels is especially important for the assessment of tourism policies and coordination in the communication process with more traditional media in order to have a unified message from all media that reaches the public should also be part of the marketing strategy, be part of the advertising campaign or the promotion of the destination (Kavoura and Katsoni, 2013). The research implies that a segmentation based on the information search behavior is an appropriate way to develop marketing strategies and target marketing communications.

Fundamental technological shifts have a profound impact on the perception, consumption and construction of tourism spaces, and their local development outcomes, and ‘traditional’ regional communities have new tools through which to disseminate their concerns, and may, via global networks, gain new ‘community members’ that can represent their interests around the world (Katsoni and Venetsanopoulou, 2013). It seems evident that tourism boards can have a significant impact on these processes, and the present findings will possibly help in outlining a cursory examination of these issues.

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The Evaluation of Quality of the Cultural Product

Supplied of the Municipal Cultural and Public

Benefit Enterprise of Karditsa‐Greece

(DI.K.E.K.): A Systemic Approach and Research

NIKOLAOS KAKKOS

Dept. of Business Administration, Technological Education Institute of Thessaly, 411 10 Larissa – Greece

GEORGIOS ASPRIDIS


LABROS SDROLIAS


DIMITRIOS BELIAS

Dept. of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Thessaly, 421 00 Trikala‐Greece


ABSTRACT The contemporary cultural environment makes urgent the strengthening and the adjustment of production structures and supply of art and culture. It is certainly depending on the individual involvement, the evolution of the economic and social conditions, the requirements and the expectations for which the effective exercise of the cultural policy of each Member presents an outstanding priority consideration. It seeks that the produced cultural products have high quality and competitive nature, able to attract the interest of the public. In this context we should unavoidably takes into consideration the activities of the cultural enterprises, they are required to preserve their viability, to renew the productive operational practices and to meet the high cultural requirements of the area in which they are active.

A typical case study of one of the most important cultural organization of Karditsa Municipality is the Municipal Cultural and Public Benefit Enterprise of Karditsa (DI.KE.K.). This organization attempts to outline the cultural environment, to identify the factors that are responsible for the organizations’ production weaknesses and last but not least we are going to propose a formation of a dynamic production network that is expected to ensure a high level of value and produced cultural products which can meet the cultural needs of the public in the local and the regional level. Keywords : Cultural Entreprises, Cultural Product, Product Quality, Cultural Audience, Local and Regional Cultural Development. 1. Introduction

The complete understanding and effective implementation of every country’s cultural policy lays the foundations for the creation of a series of significant cultural centers with products and upgraded cultural contributions which consequently provide an added cultural and comparative value on a national and international level, and which are able to stimulate various productive actions with a positive social and financial effect on the narrower and wider area in which they act (Paschalidis, 2002a:225-229; Konsola, 2006:24).

In greek reality it is however observed that the existing layout of cultural structures, of the bodies exercising cultural policy, of the means available, as well as the need for action and survival within a demanding and competitive cultural environment, make necessary a generalized structural and functional restructuring of the existing cultural institutions, assisted by a cooperative perception of all the creative and managerial factors and bodies for the better promotion of all cultural aspects in all geographical dimensions (Chambouri-Ioannidou, 2002a:18-21; Chambouri-Ioannidou, 2003:27-29). Given that today the democratization of culture and art dominate, both of which represent the increased individual and group participation in the production and consumption process, what is mainly aimed at, is to attract public interest, to claim its limited time, its energy and support and to transmit the resulting cultural notions to wider social groups, since it is mandatory that we detach from a limited ,sophisticated elitist approach towards the provision

and relish of cultural goods,without social distinctions concerning their accessibility and consumption (Bryant, 1988; Klamer, 1996; Streeten, 2006; Kakkou, 2009).

Besides, particularly problematic has recently appeared to be the situation on a local level, with the direct consequence of downgrading not only the importance but also the quality of the produced cultural goods. Although several Local Government Organizations, as significant partners on the cultural stage, have created important cultural centers, their majority displays a managerial gap, so that the produced and offered cultural product is qualitatively downgraded and appears unable to attract the audience’s interest (Klamer, 1996; Chambouri-Ioannidou, 2002a:22). The situation undoubtedly becomes even worse due to the weakness of the local cultural action to suggest alternative competitive forms of cultural activity, or it’s making a decision which in most cases lacks a complete and long term consideration. Without being an exception to the rule, in a similar condition has recently been one of the once leading enterprises of cultural and social profile, the Municipal Benefit Enterprise of Karditsa (DI .Κ.Ε.Κ).43

This enterprise constitutes the major cultural and social body of the Municipality of Karditsa, whose aim is to promote actions of cultural development and activities of social policies, as aspects of the cultural being. However the highly competitive conditions of the cultural environment in which it acts, the absence of satisfying and regular financial support by the state and local bodies of jurisdiction, as well as its close dependence upon the given municipal authority which makes various decisions by the preference of the occasional principal, compose an organizational and productive background with bureaucratic features, unable to set achievable goals, suffering from the lack of dynamic strategic decisions and plans for action, action failure and deviations from the consumer audience’s expectations, resulting in DI.K.E.K displaying a deficit in quality cultural product and significant cultural contribution.

Given the problems above, the aim of this paper is –through a theoretical and research approach, to estimate the value of the resulting and provided cultural product of this cultural unit, an evaluation made by the cultural “consumers” themselves, living on the narrower and wider area of Karditsa, so that a stable added value for DI.K.EK’s provided cultural product is secured.

Through these efforts it is expected that DI.K.EK’s profile will be more completely promoted, creating a sense of unity and focused direction towards cultural action, which will allow it to overcome the current organizational and productive difficulties and be led to a continuous flow and production of high quality |cultural works. Thus the assurance towards an effective and ongoing process of solving the arising social problems and towards satisfying the local cultural needs becomes plausible, the strong discrepancies which create an atmosphere of tension and disappointment decrease, dialogue and trust on the part of the public-with the consequent participation in the cultural events are reinforced

43The town of Karditsa, with a population of about 45.000 citizens, is the capital of the Prefecture of Karditsa, which is a sheer agricultural Prefecture with public sector employed people, located in the center of Greece, and belongs to the District of Thessaly.


(Klamer,1996; Paschalidis, 2002a:47-52; Chambouri-Ioannidou, 2002b:80; Ekonomou, 2003:92-93).

2. Methodological Approach

2.1 Production Planning and Implementation

Like every cultural organization, when formulating its production circuit (see Figure 1) (Montana et al, 1993: 84-85; Kakkou, 2009), DI.Κ.Ε.Κ, has to carry out on regular time periods a production planning, which contributes effectively in drawing up plans concerning the finally produced cultural product. The main parts of this planning include what will be produced (kind of the produced goods, wanted result of their production, aiming –categorization of the audience), and how it will be produced (production means and used resources). Later, the transformation of this planning into reality takes place on the basis of the production process, which consists of 3 individual phases :

Input Phase. During this first phase, a series of immaterial and material elements enter the production process. In the particular case as immaterial elements are regarded the cultural experience, the cultural background (culture), the audience’s response to DI.K.EK’s cultural contribution up to now, and the degree of awareness of the consumer audience for its participation as the final evaluator (Makri, 2003:58-61), whereas the material elements refer to the primary and secondary raw material necessary for the creation of the cultural goods. Possible inadequate input of such elements caused serious problems in the development of production. Nevertheless, through the research done on44

44The size and range of the problems concerning the research of DI.Κ.Ε.Κ.’s production outcome create a situation for which –in terms of research- there is no empirical approach to the whole issue through hypothesis testing being generally characterized by the inflexible features of a positivist approach (Siomkos et al, 2005: 22). In cases of such features, for the detailed research and effective approach to the whole problematic situation the direct specification of the various problems is suggested, as they are observed through the researcher’s in situ observation and general reports, accompanied by the support of the data with the use of international biography, interviews and questionnaires from all parties involved in this cultural institution Therefore, the methodological approach to the subject of this paper is carried out on the basis of an Exploratory Study and aims at the development of knowledge in terms of an analytical and integrative process of the organizational and productive structuring of organizations like DI.K.E.K, which have some special features (Kosiol, 1962; Sdrolias, 1991). The research was carried out with the use of a questionnaire. The questions were mainly scaled questions (the 7 grade Likert scale was used), while some of them were dichotomic and some others were multiple choice questions. The distribution, completion, and collection of the questionnaires took place from 14 to 22 March 2009. 180 questionnaires were distributed in different times and places in the Karditsa city with the method of personal interview (intercept interview) and they were filled in by 142 persons,

DI.Κ.Ε.Κ’s consumer audience, a significant deficit was found out, concerning the utilization of some immaterial elements, the utilization of the significant cultural background (culture) of the area and the awareness for the participation of the consumer audience in the final formulation of the cultural product

Concerning the first dimension, through the question “To what extend does DI.Κ.Ε.Κ make use of the local cultural heritage in its provided cultural goods , the consumer audience presented a degree of utilization which spans from ‘a little’ and ‘relatively’ (mean=3,60 and Std Deviation=1,379). A significant percentage of the people asked (cumulative percent: 77,1%) was located in the span from ‘not at all’ to ‘relatively’. As far as the second dimension is concerned, with regard to the supply on the part of DI.Κ.Ε.Κ of opportunities to the audience for assessing the former’s cultural and social product, and the ‘means for this assessment’, the great majority of the audience (76,3%) gave a negative response and only 23,7% responded positively (from this percentage, 64,5% was through leaflets, 25,8% through the internet and 9,7% through phone calls), which verifies the organization’s inability to use important input for the formulation of the final cultural product.

Concerning the first dimension, through the question “To what extend does DI.Κ.Ε.Κ make use of the local cultural heritage in its provided cultural goods , the consumer audience presented a degree of utilization which spans from ‘a little’ and ‘relatively’ (mean=3,60 and Std Deviation=1,379). A significant percentage of the people asked (cumulative percent: 77,1%) was located in the span from ‘not at all’ to ‘relatively’. As far as the second dimension is concerned, with regard to the supply on the part of DI.Κ.Ε.Κ of opportunities to the audience for assessing the former’s cultural and social product, and the ‘means for this assessment’, the great majority of the audience (76,3%) gave a negative response and only 23,7% responded positively (from this percentage, 64,5% was through leaflets, 25,8% through the internet and 9,7%through phone calls), which verifies the organization’s inability to use important input for the formulation of the final cultural product.

from whom 9 questionnaires were incomplete. Therefore, the final sample of the fully completed questionnaires was 131. The process of data processing was carried out with the help of the statistic package SPSS16 (Siomkos et al, 2005;Howitt et al, 2006), and particularly with the method of descriptive statistics, where its main tools were primarily used, namely Mean, Std. Deviation, Frequencies-Percent, after it was first realized that the reliability coefficient Cronbach’s of the scales that were used to measure the multifaceted notion of cultural product is 0,879, higher than 0,700, which is the normal questionnaire limit (Bishop et al., 2007; Hair et al., 2010). For a better presentation of the results of the process, the processing and the drawing of relevant conclusions a bar chart was also used.


Figure 1: Production Circuit based on the Production Planning and Process

Planning followed by DI.Κ.Ε.Κ

Production Processing phase. During this phase, the input factors enter the place of production, where the available human resources, the equipment, the means and the technology interrelate in a production process aiming at producing the final product. Output Phase. In this final stage, the ready cultural product is available for use by the consumer public. With regard to the finally produced cultural product what is aimed at is the specification of the main factors which shape its quality on the one hand and determine its cultural value on the other. Mostly responsible for shaping the quality of the cultural product are the factors of the organization’s inner and outer environment. Beyond a particular personal opinion expressed repeatedly about the problems observed during the research both in the inner and outer environment of DI.Κ.Ε.Κ and which have serious repercussions on the quality of its produced cultural and social product, the findings coming from the analysis of the relevant question clearly present a similar public opinion. Thus, when the people asked were invited to spot ,through a wide factor listing‘ the most important problems in providing products of high cultural and social value’, they presented as main reasons the insufficient state and municipal funding (62,6%), the close politically oriented dependence on the State and Local Government (59,5%), the administration’s weaknesses (56,5%), the absence of strategy and goals on the

part of the administration(55%) and the administration’s knowledge deficit (43,5%). 2.2 Production Outcome The main factors which determine the cultural value of the produced product were defined as follows: Total assessment of the provided cultural and social work. With the aim of gauging the total sense that the audience gets from DI.K.E.K’s provided work, a specific Question was asked, in which the consumer audience presented through its answer a level of assessment spanning from ‘not good’ and ‘neither good nor bad’ (with mean =3,69 and standard deviation=1,398), with the greater percentage (30,5%) considering the provided work ‘ neither good nor bad’. The audience’s total attitude is presented in the following bar chart (See. Barchart 1). Individual evaluative characterizations. It was considered essential that the level of the audience’s approval or disapproval of the characterizations of DI.K.EK’s provided cultural work be researched, so that it can be realized how the public’s reduced interest for DI.K.E.K;s cultural actions is explained . So, in the relevant question the choices ‘interesting’, ‘creative’ and ‘trivial presented a “neutral” attitude , since the mean was about 4 (4,05 - 3,88 - 3,75 correspondingly ), while the choices “subversive”, “innovative” and “pointless” were about 3 (2,76 - 2,85 - 3,14 correspondingly ), presenting an attitude of “rather disagree”, thus confirming and explaining the existing situation.

Assessment of the cultural and social contribution of DI.K.E.K’s individual units and actions. In order to be found out which of its action have had a deep impact on the public’s conscience as the most and least important for the cultural and social development of the area , the audience was asked through a Question to evaluate a series of actions and designated as “important” by order of merit the Municipal Library (mean = 4,92 and Std deviation=1,723), Municipal Cinemas (mean= 4,89 Std deviation =1,471), and cultural events (mean= 4,82 and Std deviation=1,872). The lowest average of assessment was given to the Municipal Radio Stations (mean=3,23 and Std deviation=1,906), Parking Places (mean= 3,34 and Std deviation=2,006),and the Youth Information Centre (mean=3,63 and Std deviation =2,096), the contribution of which ranged from “insignificant” and ‘neither insignificant nor “significant”.


pro2

7goodnot badnot good, not badnot goodbadvery bad

Per

cen

t

40

30

20

10

0

pro2

Bar chart 1: Visual Presentation of the audience’s assessment of the work provided by DI.Κ.Ε.Κ.

2.3 Contribution to Production Its cultural contribution as a whole. Given the contribution of the cultural organizations to the reinforcement of social bonds, to urban revival, to upgrading the cultural level and to the formulation of a recognizable identity of their area, as well as to the area’s touristic and financial development (Paschalidis, 2002a:232-235; Grodach and Loukaitou-Sideris, 2007; Lord, 2008: 6-7), it was considered necessary to research the extent to which the audience estimates that DI.Κ.Ε.Κ. ,during its long existence, offers similar services to an area in great need of such competitive advantages , so that it can confront the special emphasis given by the State on the financial and business development of important neighboring urban centers, like Larissa and Volos , at least as it is noted down by the local printed media. Therefore, when the participants were asked to pinpoint the degree of their

approval or disapproval of the various categories of contribution to the town and its region, their estimations were designated by the response “neutrally” with a slightly bigger preference given to “stressing cultural significance” (mean = 3,95 and Std deviation=1,762), as well as to the touristic development of the town and the surrounding area (mean= 3,92 and Std=1,897). Assessment of DI.K.E,K’s future contribution. This particular point was considered indispensable, since the possible estimation that DI.Κ.Ε.Κ., under its current organizational status, can offer in the future products of high cultural and social value , from the one hand contributes to management complacency, and from the other, encourages it to continue its work properly and to make plans for future action. The opposite estimation–which of course matches our personal, often stated opinion-,would lead DI.K.E.K, to skepticism, self-criticism, initiative taking ,aiming at the necessary corrective movements. On the basis of the question relevant to the issue of DI.K.E.K’s future direction of its cultural and social work , the audience advocated in favor of the second estimation ,displaying a reserved attitude (meam= 3,24 and Std deviation =1,533), oriented towards “rather disagree”. Moreover, the fact that a percentage near 80% spanned from “totally disagree” to “neither agree nor disagree” is noteworthy. 4. Review–Conclusions

The high demands of the audience of Karditsa and the wider area concerning the provided products of important cultural value face the insufficient state and municipal funding and Cultural Units’ close political dependence upon the State and the Local Government, as in the case of DI.Κ.Ε.Κ. Nevertheless ,quite significant percentages of the people asked , additionally designated as major ineffective factors, DI.Κ.Ε.Κ’s. weaknesses and knowledge gap, along with the lack of strategy and goal setting for the utilization of the area’s significant cultural background , for awareness raising aiming at the consumer audience’s participation in the final formulationof the cultural product. The research also revealed the administration’s systematic refusal to accept critical feedback and assessment messages towards the prospect of making use of the significant input for the formulation of the finally produced cultural product .Therefore the feeling of fatigue caused by the provision of unimaginative actions and the audience’s distrust in the administration’s announcements about any supposed improvement prospects, built a conscious unwillingness towards the participation of cultural audience in the cooperative formation of an innovative and desired cultural product produced by DI.K.E.K


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Consumer Behaviour in Tourism: A Content

Analysis Of Relationship Between Involvement

and Emotions

VASCO SANTOS

PhD Student, Business Sciences, Fernando Pessoa University, Porto, Portugal

PAULO RAMOS

Fernando Pessoa University, Porto, Portugal

NUNO ALMEIDA

Marketing and Tourism Department, School of Tourism and Technology of the Sea ‐ Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal

ABSTRACT

This paper performs a content analysis on the literature focused on the emotions and involvement in tourism consumer behavior. The scope of this research is to cover two of the most critical aspects of consumer behavior. Involvement and emotions that are the two biggest elements that drive tourist consumer behavior on tourist activity in destination choice. We aim to define the concepts and understand its relevance in the behavior of tourists on tourist activity in leisure tourism destinations. The methodological approach used is a content analysis to show definitions, mixed results, frameworks, different theoretical and practical approaches, comparisons and blend of various scales of involvement scales and emotions with the confrontation of authors. These results show that constructs are increasingly prominent on travel behavior and are increasingly being explored and investigated in leisure sciences. The findings provide theoretical support bringing together a consensus on definitions. The content analysis produces insights on how the concepts and definitions of involvement and emotions were clarified and defined in a more holistic way. Key Words: Involvement 1, Emotions 2, Tourists’ behavior 3, Content analysis4 1 INTRODUCTION

A review of involvement and emotions to the level of tourist behavior has

been under progress and conceptualizations, with different approaches from different authors. To Isaac (2008) the consumer behavior area is the key to explain and understand all marketing activities applied to develop, promote and sell tourism products. The involvement and emotions are crucial concepts of the research in consumer behaviour (Soscia, 2013).

However, there are still some critical gaps in the knowledge about tourists’ emotions and involvement linked to their touristic experience that have to be overcome. The involvement construct has grown and attracted more and more interest by researchers, because of its theoretical and practical value (Alexandris et al. 2012). Although studies have been developed on the role of emotions in consumer behavior those have only been empirical applied in the tourism field studies to a very limited extend (Hosany & Gilbert, 2009). However, while the majority focuses primarily on the role and impact of emotions in consumer behavior generally, with some exceptions (e.g., Zins 2002). To our knowledge to this date, no studies have been undertaken in order to understand the synergetic role of involvement and emotions of tourists in their tourist activity on leisure vacations. Although the study by Sparks (2007) address the factors that help to predict tourist behavioral intentions when planning a wine tourism vacation, is limited because focuses on wine tourism and is need to check its assumptions into a broader context. Leisure marketing is emerging as new area of research, it is, therefore, crucial to understand the principles of marketing and also understand the leisure activity (Shank 2009). In its investigation Prayag, Osany & Odeh (2013) their


results direct link between tourists' emotional responses and behavioral intentions. According to Martín & Rodríguez del Bosque (2008) cultural values could play a significant role in tourism through important effects on the behavior of tourists in general. In this context, there are more and more studies that explore the influence of culture on tourism behavior and preferences (Litvin, Crotts, & Hefner, 2004). The examination of theoretical and practical implications of involvement and emotions definitions in tourism consumer behavior and the reasons for this examination are threefold:

First, as an emergent approach, the consumer behavior in tourism

represents a growing study domain, to develop and understand the tourists’ performance on the leisure sciences (Gross & Brown, 2008), and the involvement construct has received a great deal for attention in recent years in tourism and leisure domain (Gursoy & Gavcar, 2003). Second, to explore and provide some insights of the connection between involvement and emotions that will help to predict tourist behavioral intentions. Third, contribute to the development of scientific knowledge about a clarification of the concepts of Involvement and emotions and their relationship on consumer behavior in tourism.

Most conceptualizations and operations of emotions and involvement that have appeared in the leisure literature (, i.e. Sparks (2007); Gross & Brown (2008); Kyle, Graefe, Manning & Bacon, (2003); Huang, Chou & Lin (2010); Alexandris et al. (2012) and Lee & Shen (2013)) suggest a holistic approach, as they all adapted work and concepts from in psychology, marketing and consumer behavior.

The purpose of this investigation is to examine the conceptual definition and the relationship between the two constructs within a vacations leisure context. This is crucial to better understand the definitions of the involvement and emotions in consumer behavior in tourism to better define the boundaries and overlaps between these two concepts. A content analysis of key conceptualizations of travel behavior in terms of specific research would be beneficial for the following four objectives:

First, it would promote the clarification and articulation of the main constructs (involvement and emotions) in a deeper semantic perspective. Second, it would integrate different perspectives and methodological approaches (scales and frameworks). Third, it analyzes the evolution over time of the leisure involvement dimensions and emotions that have been introduced. Finally, it would complement and advance this knowledge about the impacts on travel behavior. This paper is divided into two sections. The first section was based on the involvement construct. The second section consists by emotion construct. Nevertheless, it is hoped that by linking some key concepts and approaches in the leisure studies field, this article will encourage further research that will bring our knowledge of tourist behavior in area of leisure studies. The main contribute of this work is to enrich the body of knowledge on tourist behavior by examining in depth the multidimensional nature of involvement and emotions concepts, as well as his value as his on tourist activity.

2 paper format Methodological approach and conceptual framework

In consumer research, the use of content analysis on the texts must be scientific, objective, systematic, quantitative and generalizable description of communications (…) (Kassarjian, 1977), used in a particular item of the text (Silverman, 1977). This methodology – content analysis – is applied in this research as a tool for consumer research, as shown Sayre (1992). It´s represents a major topic on the role of content analysis in consumer behaviour research that’s based on definitions and detailed studies (Kassarjian, 1977). This paper use the systematic content analysis mentioned in the body of research literature before. The content analysis methodology to consumer research has been introduced by Kassarjian since 1977. According to Kassarjian (1977), this methodology “... integrates the set of studies in terms of themes, we are in a better position to describe current knowledge and practice, evaluate theoretical progress, identify gaps and weak points that remain, and plot a course for future research”. From ever, content analysis has described as “a vital and popular technique in the consumer researcher’s toolkit”, (Mulvey & Stern, 2004). Methodological papers have demonstrated the effective use of this content analysis through the differentiation of various types of scientific studies.

Involvement analysis Involvement is a construct originated from social psychology, specifically in the 1940s. The history of involvement started very early. Zaichkowsky (1986) pioneered the conceptualization of involvement and its theoretical and empirical explanation and described three main application areas of involvement. In light of this, the first area of involvement research was advertising measuring if advertisement were truly relevant to the receivers. The second area of involvement research is the relationship between consumer and product and the product category perceived by the consumer. The third area is in the broad field of consumer behavior and marketing, specifically its contribution to purchase decisions (Zaichkowsky, 1986). Some of the major researchers use the construct of ‘involvement’ to better understand how and why consumers form particular attachments with product classes (Kapferer and Laurent, 1985a; Slama & Tashchian, 1985; Zaichkowsky, 1985; Richins & Bloch, 1986), such as cars, music or advertising. Involvement is a multifaceted concept because it´s can be used to describe the personal importance, for individuals, of a broad range of objects, such as products/services, brands, activities, advertising, and decisions (e.g., Kim, 2005). Based on the dominant literature involvement is conceptualized in two ways: unidimensional concept (e.g. Zaichkowsky, 1985) and multidimensional construct (Kapferer & Laurent, 1993). Therefore there is a contrast between these authors, due to different conceptualizations that are widely cited in a growing of studies. In


their empirical to authors contend that the impact of different facets of involvement in the research results are not always equal (Carneiro & Crompton, 2010). Involvement knowledge has also progressed through the application of theories developed in other disciplines as tourism and leisure marketing, and some research streams have been developed, tested and widely reported in journals. Thus, the area of tourism has contributed much to the development of the concept of involvement. Involvement was developed in consumer behavior and the involvement has aroused interest by a great number of scholars that analyzed these constructs in their researches, thus they considered this construct valuable (e.g. Sherif & Cantril, 1947; Bloch, 1981 a,b; Bloch & Richins, 1983; Zaichkowsky, 1985; Kapferer & Laurent, 1985 a,b; Mittal 1995; Dholakia, 1997; Gabbott & Hogg, 1999). Bloch & Richins (1983) were they introduced the term "self-involvement" in order to explain engagement which exists only in cases where the consumer is identified with the brand choice or decision. The involvement is a special importance construct due to its potential effect on peoples’ attitudes, because of its interaction with several elements such as the tendency to a certain activity or object, and its behavior related or towards to some activity or product (Beatty & Smith, 1987; Slama & Tashian, 1985). Douglas (2006), states that involvement can be seen on the interest an individual shows for some product and on the importance given to the purchase decision. The involvement of consumer behavior is based on the causes or sources, which are described as antecedents and consequences (Zaichkowsky, 1985; Bloch & Richins, 1983), was presented in Table II. As argued by Zaichkowsky (1985) and Bloch & Richins (1983) there are three factors that can influence involvement, i.e. (1) person´s variables, (2) product variables and (3) situational variables. The first factor is related to the characteristics of the person individual, where the needs, importance, motivation, interest and values motivate the consumer to a particular object or product, thus creating involvement. The second factor is associated with the component and the physical characteristics of the object, causing differentiation are associated with further stimulating factors because they increase interest. The third and final factor is situational depending on the benefit and value in terms of purchase and use at a given time. Iwasaki and Havitz (1998) suggested that the antecedents of involvement can be classified in two types of characteristics: individual (values, attitudes and needs, for example) and social (situational factors, social and cultural rules, for example). However, Laurent and Kapferer (1985) postulated on the existence of four antecedents, which are: (1) the perceived importance of the product as well as its personal significance (interest), (2) the associated risk the purchase of the product, which turn the background into two segments: the perceived importance through the negative consequences when you make a wrong choice (importance of the risk) and perceived importance of making a wrong choice (risk probability). (3) The remaining antecedent is the symbolic or sign value that consumers attach to a product, its purchase or consumption (nominal value). (4) The last final antecedent is the hedonic value that consumers attach to the product, your emotional involvement and autonomy to promote pleasure and also affect (pleasure). Andrews, Durvasula and Akhter (1990) grouped the previous antecedents differently, and in three different groups: (1) personal needs (personal goals and consequences values, cultural, the degree to which the subject has significance ego-related, personal value of the object, purpose and importance of

personality factors) and (2) situation and decision factors (purchase occasion, object usage, perceived risk of the decision, magnitude of the consequences of the decision, the decision imminent, degree of irrevocability of the decision and the degree of responsibility). About the antecedents’ context, the above authors have inspired interest from a discussion of the involvement of the theoretical issues and implications for consumer behaviour. In general, Zaichkowsky is the author that presents a more integrated and detailed conceptualization, because she segments the antecedents of involvement, in situations in that the same occur with advertisements, with products or with purchase decisions. Laurent and Kapferer also suggested an integrated set of involvement antecedents, where the antecedent of risk associated the purchase of the product was further explored, for their double significant. However, Iwasaki and Havitz and Andrews, Durvasula and Akhter classify the antecedents of involvement in an approach more simple and general, only two types of antecedents in the same line of thought. As well as the antecedents, the consequences have also a role in this process depending of the involvement. In the perspective of Zaichkowsky (1986), there´s a set of possible consequences of involvement, which derive from involvement with advertisements; involvement with products and involvement with purchasing decisions, as shown in Table II. For Andrews, Durvasula & Akhter (1990), the consequences are due to the engagement intensity, direction and duration of the effects engagement and divided into three components: the first component refers to (1) Research behaviour: increasing demand and buying behavior, the increasing complexity of decision, the largest layoff of time evaluating alternatives and greater perception of differences in product attributes. (2) The second component is processing of information: the total growth in activity and targeted response cognition: the largest number of personal calls, the more sophisticated coding strategies and increased memory and understanding. (3) And the third component is the persuasion, that´s based in convincing arguments, in that attitude change is greater. Laurent and Kapferer (1985) also enunciated five behavioral consequences of origin from the involvement: (1) demand maximization of satisfaction on brand choice according to a selection process (buy many brands, waiver of time and analyze various products), (2) the active search for information through alternative sources, (3) likely to be influenced by reference groups, (4) the probability to express your lifestyle and personal characteristics on brand choice and (5) cognitive processing in communication, through the stages of awareness, understanding, attitude and behavior. There are still various perspectives and approaches of the involvement consequences in literature. Conceptual consequences of involvement have differed with different issues and contexts of marketing. Researchers and much research concentrate on the role of multiple dimensions of antecedents and consequences of the involvement on generic consumer of products and services marketing literature. From this perspectives, the involvement construct has earned attention not only in the field of consumer behavior, but also recently in leisure marketing research, specifically the leisure consumer (Horner, S. & Swarbrooke, J., 2005). In this paper it is used to summarize and guide a content analysis of principals differences between the conceptualization of the involvement construct by the most contributive authors. In marketing, the involvement concept appears in two different


contexts or meanings: involvement with the product and involvement with the purchase of a product (Kapferer & Laurent, 1985a).

Table I

Main involvement concepts

Author Definition (Mitchell, 1979) internal state variable that reflects the

amount of arousal, interest, or drive evoked by a particular stimuli or situation that mediates consumer behavior

Beatty and Smith (1983) degree to which a particular situation engenders involvement

(Rothschild, 1984) State of motivation, arousal, or interest with regard to a product, an activity, or an object

Park and Mittal (1985) “goal-directed arousal capacity’ governed by two sets of motives: cognitive and affective”

Celsi & Olson (1988, pp. 211) “perceived personal relevance”

Johnson and Eagly (1989, pp. 293)

“motivational state induced by an association between an activated attitude and some aspect of the self-concept”

(Dimanche, Havitz & Howard, 1993)

degree to which consumers engage in different factors of the consumption process: product, advertising, information search, information processing, decision making and the act of purchase

Laaksonen (1994) cognitive based, individual state, and response based

Mowen & Minor (1998) perceived personal importance and the importance consumers give to the purchase, consumption and disposal of a good, service or idea

Blackwell, Miniard and Engel (2001)

relationship between a person and a product

(Kim, 2005) multifaceted concept because it´s can be used to describe the personal importance, for individuals, of a broad range of objects, such as products/services, brands, activities, advertising, and decisions

Douglas (2006) the interest an individual shows for some product and on the importance given to the purchase decision

Michaelidou, Nina and Dibb & Sally (2008)

“individual difference variable found to influence consumers’ decision making and communication behaviors”; “relationship between an individual, an object and a situation”

Therefore the lasting involvement establishes a connection with the situational involvement, but situational involvement does not connect with the lasting involvement (Kapferer & Laurent, 1985a). Thus, in situations where the purchase of a product does not cause desire, interest and pleasure, the consumer only takes the final purchase decision based on price or brand, which only implies the existence of a transient or situational involvement. Involvement is a hypothetical variable, hence it cannot be measured directly (Kapferer & Laurent, 1985b). Rothschild (1984) suggested that involvement has three forms or types: enduring, situational, and response. To make a distinction between enduring and situational involvement types it is used the notion of duration to highlight these differences (Richins & Bloch, 1986). In this paper we present the main involvement concepts used in consumer behavior, as shown Table I.

According Table I, there is no a single precise definition of involvement and it is derived because the different applications. Involvement in consumer behavior is classified by conceptualization, classifications and types. To Laaksonen (1984) there are three groups to definition the involvement cognitive based, individual state, and response based. The main differences of the concept of involvement have to do with the different areas and multiple contexts including involvement such as advertising (Andrews, et al., 1990; Zaichkowsky, 1994; Greenwald and Leavitt, 1984); product class (e.g. Kapferer & Laurent, 1985a; Kapferer & Laurent, 1993; Michaelidou & Dibb, 2006); purchase decision (e.g. Mittal, 1989; Slama & Tashchian, 1985; Huang, Chou & Lin, 2010) and leisure (e.g. Havitz et al., 1994; Gursoy & Gavcar, 2003; Iwasaki & Havitz, 2004; Kyle & Mowen, 2005).

However, it is clear that there is some overlap in the wrapping concept. The construction involved is connected with the nature of the motivational state consumers. When consumers are involved, pay enough attention, realize the importance and behave differently than when they are not involved (Zaichkowsky, 1986).

In essence, this analysis posits that various definitions are required to conceptualize and complement the involvement in consumer research.

There are different perpectives to analyse the measurement dimensions and variables of the involvement. Methods for measuring involvement in consumer research were introduced are in Table III.

Table III Involvement measurement dimensions and variables analysis

Methods for measuring involvement in consumer research

Authors Object of study/dimensions Laurent and Kapferer´s CIP

Risk, symbol, interest and pleasure

Zaichkowsky´s PII Advertising, products and purchase situations

Zaichkowsky´s PIIA Personal, rational and emotional ad relevance and high and low involvement guy with advertising.

Mittal´s PDI Understand the differences of the marks, the importance of the product, the notion of risk that arises through the purchase of a product and the importance it holds to purchase in person's life.

Bloch´s IPCA Interest in cars, the ease with which you talk about the topic, list of cars with the most important values or needs and use the car as an expression of the person.

Tigert et al.´s FII & FIF Time of purchase and innovativeness in fashion, fashion as interpersonal communication, interest in fashion, the level of information for fashion and fashion awareness and reaction to changes in trends.

Marshall and Bell´s FIS Represents a general measure of involvement in the process of provisioning of food and not just for a specific food product or brand.

Levels of consumer involvement were discovered and investigated early in the literature based on product's pleasure value, sign value, risk Importance, probability of purchase error, attitude, perception, commitment, familiarity, brand importance, optimum stimulus level, for example (Hupfer & Gardner, 1971; Traylor, 1981). There are two central aspects in the leisure involvement research, their dimensions and the behavioral manifestations of the consumer (Hing, Breen & Gordon, 2012). Most studies have focused on the dimensions of leisure involvement, since Laurent and Kapferer (1985) have advanced the application of Consumer Involvement Profile (CIP). Laurent and Kapferer (1985) suggest the involvement should not be measured by the antecedents (product’s pleasure value, sign or symbolic value, risk importance and


probability of purchase error) isolated from each other, but with the antecedents grouped to measure consumer involvement. Thus, this set of antecedents gives rise to the CIP. There has been general consensus with regard to the multidimensional nature of leisure involvement (Kyle et al, 2007; Lee & Scott, 2009). However, there is still disagreement over the nature and definition of these dimensions and which ones are more salient to understand the nature of leisure involvement (Hing, Breen & Gordon, 2012). With the introduction of CIP and other new changes emerged based on this, the level of factor structures (Havitz & Dimanche, 1997), in which some dimensions remained, others were excluded and others added. In leisure tourism, the applications of involvement consists of three dimensions – attraction (Funk, Ridinger, & Moorman, 2004), self-expression (Selin & Howard, 1988) and centrality to lifestyle (Havitz, Dimanche, & Bogle, 1994). The principals and most dimensions of leisure involvement were introduced are in Table VI.

Table IV Involvement dimensions in leisure activities

Authors´ scales Dimensions

(Havitz & Dimanche, 1997)

Perceived interest/importance, perceived pleasure, and sign or symbolic value

(Scott & Shafer , 2001)

Centrality to lifestyle

(Hwang & Chen, 2005)

Place attachment and interpretation satisfaction

(Gross & Brown, 2006, 2008)

Lifestyle and place attachment into tourism

(Lee & Scott, 2009) Interest/importance and pleasure dimensions have been combined into an attraction dimension

(Lee & Chen, 2013) leisure involvement and place attachment on destination loyalty

The construct of involvement in tourism research applies to a wide variety of

consumer behaviors and marketing contexts. On field of leisure and tourism literature, most research chooses to use the multidimensional construct of involvement, with three facets as attraction/pleasure, centrality, and sign (Beaton, Funk, & Alexandris, 2009; Havitz & Dimanche, 1997). Involvement has a central impact on comprehension of the experience of leisure and tourist behavior (Reid & Crompton, 1993), largely due to its effectiveness as a predictor of consumer behavior in leisure (Gross & Brown , 2006) . It is for this reason that the engagement has been widely examined in the leisure and tourism area (Gursoy & Gavcar , 2003; Havitz & Dimanche , 1997; McGehee et al., 2003). Most studies of leisure and tourism apply in contexts of activity (Havitz & Dimanche , 1995; Lee , Kim & Scott , 2008) , but also some additional research have been applied in the

decision of traveling (e.g., Cai , Breiter & Feng , 2004) The involvement has been explored extensively within multiples contexts and

meanings on marketing and consumer behavior disciplines. For an overall view, the Table V summarizes a set of studies about involvement in leisure, tourism and marketing context.

Table V Summary studies of involvement in leisure, tourism and marketing context

Author Object of study

(Stone, 1984) Leisure involvement has been found to influence time and/or intensity of effort expended

(Havitz & Howard, 1995; Kim et al., 1997;; Venkatraman, 1988)

Leisure involvement has been found to influence frequency and length of participation

Park (1996) Relationship between involvement and attitudinal loyalty

Jamrozy, Backman & Backman (1986)

Involvement and opinion leadership in tourism

(Bloch, 1993; Kim et al., 1997; Siegenthaler & Lam, 1992)

Leisure involvement has been found to influence money spent

Iwasaky & Havitz, (1998) Relationship between involvement, commitment and loyalty

(Kim et al., 1997) Leisure involvement has been found to influence miles traveled and ability or skill

(Bloch et al., 1989; Kim et al., 1997)

Leisure involvement has been found to influence ownership of equipment/books and number of

memberships (Watkins, 1987) Leisure involvement has been found to influence

information search behavior (Gahwiler & Havitz, 1998; Havitz

et al., 1994; Iwasaki & Havitz, 2004; Kyle & Mowen, 2005)

Leisure involvement has been found to influence and preferences and evaluation of activity components

such as facilities and providers Kyle e Chick (2002) The social nature of leisure involvement

Gursoy & Gavcar (2003) International Leisure Tourists’ Involvement Profile

Michaelidou & Dibb (2006) Product involvement: an application in clothing

Kyle et al. (2006) Relationship between motivation and enduring involvement

Sparks (2007) Wine tourism vacation: factors that help to predict tourist behavioral intentions


317

Emotions analysis

In the literature of psychology emotions have been extensively investigated by the rich body of researchers in different fields of knowledge. Aristotle was pioneer to emphasize the emotion. In past years, after Descartes, most important studious on the emotions have been Darwin, Ekman, Damásio and Goleman (Consoli, 2010). The role of emotion in tourism has received unprecedented recognition in the field of tourism and marketing. The emotions establish a strong importance in the comprehension of consumer behavior and even the definition of experiences and also enhance consumer reactions and on tourist (Prayag, Hasany & Odeh, 2013; pp.119).

The effort to define the term “emotion” has a long history in the discipline of psychology and marketing. There are many definitions of emotions as the authors investigate, and each focusing on different manifestations or components of the emotion, but all reflects the theoretical basis of psychology. Several authors’ present definitions and each of these definitions have its origins in several theories (psychology and sociology). In the field of emotion has been great variety of definitions that have been proposed for many authors that diverged in the literature of psychology. Izard (1977), whose emotion scale has been applied in a number of studies to consumer behavior research, presents three definitions of emotions as

(Gross & Brown, 2008; Kyle, Graefe, Manning & Bacon, 2003)

Relationship between involvement and place attachment

Huang, Chou & Lin (2010) Involvement theory in constructing bloggers’ intention to purchase travel products

Ritchie, Tkaczynski & Faulks (2010)

Motivation and travel behavior of cycle tourists using involvement profiles

Alexandris et al. (2012) Involvement with active leisure participation

Ferns & Walls (2012) Enduring travel involvement, destination brand equity, and travelers’ visit intentions: A structural model analysis

Hing et al. (2012) A case study of gambling involvement and its consequences

(Filo et al. 2013) Sport tourists' involvement with a destination

Yeh (2013) Tourism involvement, work engagement and job satisfaction among frontline hotel employees

Lee & Shen (2013) The influence of leisure involvement and place attachment on destination loyalty: Evidence from recreationists walking their dogs in urban parks

318

shown Table VI, in the cast of the main concepts of emotions. The emotions are a valence affective reaction to perception of situations (Richins, 1997).

Table VI Main emotions concepts

Author Definition

Laros and Steenkamp (2005) in our study about emotions in consumer behavior: a hierarchical approach, the hierarchy of consumer emotions supporting the different emotion structures, i.e., positive and negative effect. The final result can be seen in Table VII.

Descartes (1649) Emotions were a series of automatisms and human behaviors different than cognitive processes

Izard (1977) 1. “The experience or conscious feeling of emotion” 2. “The processes that occurs in the brain and nervous system” 3. “The observable expressive patterns of emotions (particularly on the face)”

Cohen & Areni (1990) “Emotions are described as episodes of intense feelings that are associated with a specific referent and instigate specific response behaviors”

Bagozzi et al. 1999, pp. 184) “…mental states of readiness that arise from cognitive appraisals of events or thoughts; has a phenomenological tone; is accompanied by physiological processes; is often expressed physically (e.g., in gestures, posture, facial features); and may result in specific actions to affirm or cope with the emotion, depending on its nature and meaning for the person having it”

Fridja (2007) short-lived, are short-lived in the field of consciousness, require immediate attention and motivate behavior


319

Table VII Hierarchy of consumer emotions

Negative affect

Anger Fear Sadness Shame Angry Scared Depressed EmbarrassedFrustrated Afraid Sad Ashamed Irritated Panicky Miserable Humiliated Unfulfilled Nervous Helpless Discontent Worried Nostalgia Envious Tense Guilty Jealous

Positive affect

Contentment Happiness Love Pride Contented Optimistic Sexy Pride Fulfilled Encouraged Romantic Peaceful Hopeful Passionate Happy Loving Pleased Sentimental Joyful Warm-

hearted

Relieved Thrilled Enthusiastic

Emotions have been the target of large and important research investigation

in marketing literature applied consumer behavior literature. In this area, there is a rich group of researchers who normally uses and adapts the theoretical scales of emotions. Thus, there are four scales of emotions that have been widely used in marketing as the primary method of research as follows: Mehrabian and Russell (1974) Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance (PAD); Izard (1977) Differential Emotion Scale (DES); Plutchik (1980) eight primary emotion scale (PTE); and Watson, Clark and Tellegen (1988) Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scales (PANAS). However, Richins (1997) developed the Consumption Emotion Set (CES), therefore considered that the scales that which had been developed presented limitations to assess the range of emotions during the consumption experience. The CES comprises of 16 dimensions and the difference of this scale compared to the previous ones is that consists in the exception of envy, loneliness, peacefulness and contentment, and to Richins (1997) and Bagozzi et al. (1999), its measures achieved satisfactory reliability.

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Hosany & Gilbert (2009) argues that these scales have limitations when you want to capture emotions associated consumption, although useful for situations in which they were originally developed. In addition to these, there are Baumgartner, Pieters and Bagozzi (2008) with anticipated and anticipatory emotions, i.e., future oriented emotions. More recently, Hosany and Gilbert (2009) contributed with develop of Destination Emotion Scale (DES). The following emotions scales analysis, there are different methods for measuring emotions on consumer context and this content analysis examines different authors’ perspectives. Different methods and scales have been used by several authors throughout time to measure emotions, for several empirical investigations in consumer research, as shown in Table VII. In summary, the different scales analyzed to measure the emotional states developed by scholars prove that there are wide variations in content. This content analysis of measures of emotions shows several differences between their content depends of study subject.

Table VII Emotions analysis

Emotions dimensions in consumer research

Authors Dimensions

Izard´s DES Interest, joy, anger, disgust, contempt, sadness, fear, shame, guilt and surprise.

Plutchik’s primary emotions (PTE)

Fear, anger, joy, sadness, acceptance, disgust, expectancy, surprise

Mehrabian & Russell (PAD) Pleasure, arousal and dominance

Watson, Clark & Tellegen (PANAS)

Positive affect: enthusiastic, active and alert Negative affect: anger ,contempt, disgust, guilt ,fear, and nervousness

Richins´s CES Positive: romantic love, love, peacefulness, content, optimism, joy, excitement Negative: anger, discontent, worry, sadness, fear, shame, envy, loneliness Anticipated Positive: relieved, satisfied, happy,

proud Negative: disappointed, annoyed, regretful, stupid, guilty, angry at self

Baumgartner et al´s anticipated and anticipatory emotions

Anticipatory Positive: optimistic, confident Negative: worried, anxious, uncomfortable

Hosany & Gilbert (DES) Joy, love, positive surprise, satisfaction

Different scales on consumer research context have been originally development in various field studies and different forms in marketing and consumer behavior. As the scales are designed for a behavioral amalgam studies, Table VIII


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presented their applications in field study.

Table VIII Emotions

Emotions Field study

Izard´s DES Across various consumption settings, variety of consumer research contexts.

Plutchik’s primary emotions (PTE)

Advertising research

Mehrabian & Russell (PAD)

Environmental psychology

Watson, Clark & Tellegen (PANAS)

Consumption emotions

Richins´s CES Diversified consumer contexts

Baumgartner et al´s anticipated and anticipatory emotions

Decision-making

Hosany & Gilbert (DES)

Measuring consumers’ reactive emotions

A rich body of studies has examined the influence of emotions on leisure

marketing, hospitality and tourism. The main studies are attached in Table IX, for a straightforward query.

Table IX Main past studies of emotions in global tourism context

Author Object of study

(Floyd (1997); Zins (2002); de Rojas & Camarero (2008); del Bosque & San Martin (2008))

The relationship between emotions and overall satisfaction

(Barsky & Nash (2002))

The relationship between emotions and customer loyalty

(Bigné & Andreu, 2004)

The emotions as a segmentation variable for leisure and tourism services

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(Bigné, Andreu, & Gnoth, 2005)

The relationship between emotions, cognition, satisfaction and behavioural intentions in the context of theme parks

(Jang & Namkung, 2009)

The relationship between emotions and behavioural intentions

(Chuang (2007); Kwortnik & Ross, 2007))

Influence of emotions on decisions to purchase tourism and leisure services

Yuksel & Yuksel (2007) ; Grappi & Montanari (2011)

Examine emotions as antecedent of satisfaction and behavioral intentions

(Hosany, 2008) The dimensions of emotional responses towards tourist destinations

Hosany & Gilbert (2009)

The relationship between tourists’ emotional experiences, satisfaction, and intention to recommend – to measure tourists’ emotional responses toward destinations

(Moreno, Molina & Moreno, 2012)

Tourist’s satisfaction, image or emotions?

(Prayag, Honay & Odeh, 2013)

The role of tourists' emotional experiences and satisfaction in understanding behavioural intentions

Lin et al. (2014) Changes in emotions and their interactions with personality in a vacation context

In summary, this overview shows that studies in the global tourism focus on

studying behavioural intentions, cognition, satisfaction, purchase decision and decision-making, customer loyalty, emotions as a segmentation variable for leisure and tourism services, its relationship with overall satisfaction, tourists’ emotional experiences and intention to recommend, emotional responses towards tourist destinations, tourists' emotional experiences and satisfaction and emotions and their interactions with personality in a vacation context. Previous research advance that there is a positive correlation between positive emotions, satisfaction and behavioral intentions (Bigné et al. (2005); Yuksel & Yuksel (2007) ; Grappi & Montanari (2011) and Han & Jeong (2013)). Yet, there is a dichotomy between positive and negative emotions in this context, because when negative emotions are introduced as antecedents of satisfaction


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and/or behavioral intentions, the contradictory results emerge (Prayag, 2013). Generally, the tourism potentiates a positive experience with satisfying and pleasurable emotions (Mannell, 1980) and the tourism experience offers unique moments with a high personal value and an emotional charge of the consumers (McIntosh & Siggs, 2005). To Hirschman and Holbrook (1982), field study of emotions in the consumption experience is mostly associated with product categories with high hedonic charge. In this perspective, leisure travel may be included in this type of product, according to their hedonic character. The experiences provided by touristic destinations are emotionally attractive and, the more important are, without a doubt, the emotional “promises” of touristic destinations that increase the tourist’s involvement in the process of decision making and his perception of the unique characteristics of the destination (Goossens, 2000). Emotions are always part of the touristic involvement, in fact, the tourist’s decision usually involves rationality but also emotion, and, although they seem hardly connected, they both participate, as executable factors, in a good decision process (Damásio, 1994). Emotions also influence the choice of a brand, because they identify what’s more important for the consumer (Damásio, 1994). Emotions are the most important aspect of consumer behaviour. Emotional factors are particularly powerful in the process of purchase decision on vacation. Sometimes, tourists make their vacation decisions according to their personal emotions (White & Scandale, 2005). Therefore tourism is no exception; on the contrary, holidays in touristic destinations provide tourists a great deal of experiences (Gnoth, 1997). Following the ideas previously exposed, the experience given by tourism is, by itself, a complex amount of factors (Buhalis, 2000; Swarbrooke, 2002), namely social, emotional, economical and psychological (Bowen, 2001). The role of emotions and the type of emotional response are, due to its essence, delicate and somewhat complex, because emotions can play different roles, meaning, of cause, mediation, effect, consequence and moderation depending of the involvement (Bagozzi, Gopinath & Nyer, 1999). In recent years, emotions and feelings has been of attention by researchers in recent consumer behavior literature. They concluded that emotions and feelings play an important role in processing information (Sirakaya & Woodside, 2005). In the same way, the tourist’s satisfaction comes from the emotional experiences provided by a destination or event (Lee & Jeong, 2009). Overall, the experience is rich in tourist emotions and tourists are constantly engaged in their own experiences they produce (Hosany & Gilbert, 2009). Goossens (2000) also assigns a very important role for the emotions because they increase the involvement of tourists in decision process and also increases the perception of the uniqueness of the destination, so the emotions are a predictor in the selection and consumer behavior. As previously mentioned, tourist’s emotions are an extremely important element when it comes to choose to travel; in fact, a leisure trip means an opportunity to be “more” happy and fulfilled. The more negative aspects of our existence are related to our daily life (Krippendorf, 1987). For tourists, leisure vacation are an escape to daily routine, a way to experience feelings of freedom, escape and a world of new and different feelings and experiences that,

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consequently, produce higher levels of happiness and improve, as reward, their well-being (Gilbert & Abdullah, 2004). Accordingly, emotions and satisfaction influence behavioral intentions (Baker & Crompton, 2000; Bigné et al., 2005; Soscia, 2007; Faullant et al., 2011 and Walsh et al., 2011). Goossens (2000) highlights the emotions and feelings as strong predictors in motivating tourists to plan a trip and postulates that these two factors have a prominent role in the selection and consumer behaviour. In this sense, Peter & Oslon (2009, pp.309) also extol that emotions and feelings in consumers' decision, as well as its impact on changing consumer behavior. Gnoth (1997) and Chuang (2007) expresses that emotions also affect decisions to purchase tourism and leisure services. In the line of that, the emotions have different effects on behavioral intentions (Zeelenberg & Pieters, 2004; Soscia, 2007).

Content analysis of emotions and involvement

Within the psychology literature, there are two fundamental approaches to studying emotions: dimensional (valence based) and categorical (emotion specificity), (Prayag, Hosany & Odeh, 2013).

The contributions in social psychology literature demonstrate that individuals are closely connected to their societies (Litvin, Crotts, & Hefner, 2004). In fact of this, there is a cultural approach to the concept of emotions. But according to Fridja (2007) the emotions motivate behavior, have a short duration, are short-lived in the field of consciousness and require immediate attention. There is also a behavioral versus cultural approach (Fridja, 2007; Litvin, Crotts, & Hefner, 2004). Cultural norms play a predominant role, and impact on nature and constitution of emotions in how they are expressed and managed (Keltner, 2003; Mesquita, 2001).

Then it is considered that the concept of emotions encompasses the management of multidimensionality. For the content analysis of the concepts of emotions, it is possible to consider that on literature of emotion the major problem has been the growing set of different definitions that have been proposed and some definitions are relatively precise, while others are quite vague, in various contexts and approaches (Kleinginna & Kleinginna, 1981).

Although the involvement is quite comprehensive in psychology and consumer behavior literature, the current definitions of psychological involvement and leisure involvement developed and evolved from Rothschild’s definition and actually are equally instructive (Funk, Ridinger & Moorman, 2004). The adaptation of the engagement construct has emerged, while the areas of forward applied to study the involvement. Many studies have conceptualized the involvement as a multidimensional construct (Havitz & Dimanche, 1997; Havitz & Howard, 1995; Laurent & Kapferer, 1985; McIntyre, 1989; Wiley, Shaw, & Havitz, 2000). Although the characteristics of multidimensionality of engagement remain the subject of much discussion and attention, initial conceptual framework argued by Laurent and


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Kapferer remains widely prevalent. Consistent with previous leisure literature, we treat the involvement concept as a multidimensional construct. But agreement is not full, some researchers have approached involvement from a unidimensional perspective (e.g., Kim et al., 1997; Reid & Crompton, 1993), although a vast majority of empirical evidence supports and treats its multidimensionality (Havitz & Dimanche, 1997, 1999; Iwasaki & Havitz, 1998; Wiley et al., 2000). Discussion and implications

The following content analysis on constructs, methods and their relevance’s it´s quite prevalent the study of emotions and involvement with services, products, including tourism, has been extensively explored within marketing and consumer behavior disciplines. On a superficial level of this content analysis, the results presented show that emotions and involvement demonstrate greater progress and scientific development to the level of marketing and consumer behavior. The combined use of emotions and involvement has not yet applied by marketing researchers and tourism. The use of the emotions and Involvement constructs only occurred separately on marketing studies, leisure and tourism.

More specifically, although it is acknowledged that consumers have both emotional to their immediate environment (Machleit & Eroglu, 2000) yet no empirical study has investigated and explored the dimensions of emotional responses of tourists in tourist activity. To Otto and Ritchie (1996) the tourist destinations are rich in terms of experiences and attributes and contributes to potentiate an emotional response even greater.

However, to date, the relationship between involvement and emotion on tourist activity involvement has not been explored and this is another limitation on the current study. This kind of knowledge is particularly valuable for better understand the consumer behavior tourist in tourism. Understanding how tourists involve in leisure tourism destinations can provide a better comprehension of the dynamics of the tourist consumer behavior and the nature and role of tourism in society.

A number of studies must attempt to understand the influence of emotion in tourism, leisure marketing and hospitality and also the impact of involvement to understand the relationship of these two constructs, through the measurement of emotions and of Involvement in tourism.

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3 conclusionS

In recent years, much research include on the role of emotions in the generic

marketing and consumer behavior literature, however empirical studies in the field of tourism remain limited and require more scientific developments. The present content analysis concludes that involvement and emotions constructs has been shown to play a crucial role on tourists´ behavioral intentions on leisure, marketing and tourism. To address this knowledge gap, the current content analysis follows a methodical process in exploring and explanation of emotions and involvement constructs of tourists’ emotional experiences in their touristic activity. The study offers important implications for theorizing emotion in the context of tourist destinations. A key theoretical contribution of this study is the development of a content analysis about of these two constructs that maintains the tourist behavior to provide direction for future research on consumer behavior in tourism. The consumer behavior in tourism area should focus on relationship between involvement and emotions. It’s clear that this field study needs more advance and scientific knowledge on the subject. This research can mean as an important starting point on tourist behavior, a number of future scientific studies can be developed to explore the consumer in tourism in general and the involvement and emotions on travel behavior in tourist activity in particular.

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